How It All Began
by HOLLOWpoint headers
Summary: James Potter has fallen for Lily Evans, hard. Ever since he first saw her flaming hair he has been infaturated with her every move. Lily, however, cannot stand his very presence. Chronicals the first three years of James and Lily's love, or lack there of.
1. 1 Letters

Ch.1 Letters

The eleven-year-old Lily Evans opened her startlingly bright green eyes to a pleasantly warm August morning. She yawned slightly as she sat up and glanced out her window. It would be yet another boiling hot, dry day, turning the grass an even deader shade of yellow. She couldn't wait until September, she had been accepted to Eton Academy and Petunia was too little. She'd only have to listen to her obnoxious, rude, and self-centered little sister for two more weeks before she would be free of the unkind comments until Christmas. Ah… sweet freedom…

These soothing thoughts were interrupted as Petunia's high-pitched shriek penetrated her bedroom walls. "Probably another spider or something stupid," Lily thought to herself as she hurried downstairs. What she saw had nothing whatsoever to do with spiders.

A massive tawny owl was swooping through her kitchen, clearly waiting for something. As soon as her foot hit the bottom step, the owl flew over to Lily, dropped a piece of parchment at her feet, and flapped up to perch on the Grandfather clock in the corner.

Forgetting about the odd letter and expectant owl for a moment, Lily sat down next to her cowering sister and attempted to comfort her as their mother ran inside from her sappy romance novel in the sun on the porch to check on the commotion. Lily's father was out for his morning run.

"What on earth is going on?" Mrs. Evans shrieked as soon as she saw the mess the owl had made, having knocked just about every item in the kitchen over and now put deep scratch marks in the wood of her antique clock.

Petunia tripped on her words as her heart rate slowly returned to normal, "An owl, it-it wa-was right he-here. It flew all over! Kno-knocked everything th-th-thing over and the-then dropped that le-letter," she pointed towards the stairs with a shaky hand, " in front of Li-lily," she completed with a last shuddering sigh.

Once Mrs. Evans and Lily had Petunia settled in the sun room with a glass of lemonade and a cheap electric fan blowing on her, they returned to the kitchen and looked at the envelope; right on the floor where the owl had left it. The address side was up in emerald green ink:

Miss L. Evans 

The messiest bedroom

35 Fairbrook Lane

Whitecross

Kent 

"Well aren't you going to open that, dear?" Mrs. Evans asked stiffly.

"Of course," Lily responded, but she didn't move. They stood there a minute, just staring at the address, wondering… The thoughts, "How do they know my bedroom's so messy… Why an owl… Why is the owl still here… What do they want from me?" Kept running through her head until a quiet hoot from the owl disturbed her thoughts. She glanced questioningly towards it, but it just blinked unhelpfully. Lily took a steadying breath and tentatively reached down to lift the envelope. Petunia had come to the doorway to watch.

Lily's mother gasped as Lily's hand grasped the thick parchment. The seal on the back was also in green ink, a big letter H surrounded by a miniscule eagle, badger, snake and lion. "Well that rules out Eton as the mysterious sender," Lily thought to herself.

As Lily broke the seal she was filled with a surge of happiness from within, a sense of contentment as though she subconsciously knew that this letter was somehow good news for her. The grandfather clock with the owl on top struck noon, calling her back to her senses.

Lily calmly unfolded the yellowing parchment and began to read aloud, "Dear Miss Evans, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," a shocked pause, "Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment as well as instructions as to how you will access the wizarding world as you are from a purely muggle, non magical, family. Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later then July 31st. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me. Yours Sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress."

All three women stared at the letter until Petunia baldly questioned, "You were accepted to where?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…" Lily whispered, her eyes glazed over, trying to imagine magic actually existing.

"But you were already accepted to Eton. That's where you're going! Everyone knows magic doesn't exist!" Petunia's voice began to rise higher in pitch; Lily detected a hint of envy in her little sister's voice.

"I think it does," Lily shot back, still barely audible.

"No it doesn't!"

"Yeah is does!"

"No!"

"Yeah!"

"NO!"

"YE--"

"Girls! Stop it! I won't have all that shrieking in my house." Mrs. Evans daughters turned to glare at her; she'd never had a lot of control over them. "We need to figure this out logically. No more raised voices--"

"WHAT HAPPENED? WHO'S YELLING? WHAT'S GOING ON?" Mr. Evans yelled as he shot through the front door and skidded into the kitchen. It took him a split second to register the absolute mess, three furious women, and the tawny owl slowly destroying the old clock. His eyes widened, "What on earth?"

"Lily got some letter from some crazy people who think she's a witch and want her to go to their school. Now she's claiming magic exists and that she won't go to Eton." Petunia rushed through the words, hoping that her sister would get in trouble for at least something that morning.

Mr. Evans looked at Lily; then his eyes met his wife's and saw his own confusion reflected in her eyes. "Let's get some tea," the typical British response to anything, when in doubt, pull out the tea bags, "and we'll try to figure out what's going on."

Mr. Evans, Lily, and Petunia walked into the parlor, followed by the owl. After two uncomfortably silent minutes listening to the muffled sound of bird song, Mrs. Evans bustled into the room with the tea tray, she poured a cup for everyone and continued to procrastinate until Mr. Evans coughed and she finally took a seat.

Lily's mind was not in that stifling parlor the rest of the morning as her family registered the shock. She was imagining the school, tons of students like her learning magic! She'd always wished magic truly existed; now she knew it did. Lily wasn't sure how she knew, but she was positive, magic was real. Part of her had known all along, it had just been a matter of time.

"I'm so proud, Lily!" her mother chimed in! "Who would have thought, a witch! I just cannot wait to tell your grandmother; then again, I suppose I can't. We have to keep this on the down low." Mrs. Evan's gossiping mind was ready to burst.

"MOM! No one, NO ONE can know about this! Absolutely no one! They wouldn't understand!" Lily began to panic; she'd read loads about witch-hunts. Of course they wouldn't burn her on a stake or anything, but what if the government wanted to study her? She shuddered, "You promise? All of you?" Lily's eyes lingered in Petunia. She only relaxed once they all met her demanding green eyes and agreed.

"Now can I leave so I can write back to this lady," she glanced at the letter, "Professor McGonagall?"

"Yes of course, dear," Mr. Evans happily agreed, "I think I'm going to go lie down." As he stood, Lily rose with him. He gave her a hug, "I'm so proud of you!"

Lily smiled and walked out of the room. Just as she exited she heard Petunia mutter, "Freak!" but nothing would bring Lily down that day.

At dinner they made plans to go into London, following the directions in her letter to the wizarding shops. Lily fell asleep with a smile on her face, what a day.

That same morning, the eleven-year-old James Potter opened his eyes to the same pleasantly warm morning in the Potter Manor. He blinked his hazel eyes and ruffled his messy black hair, all the while thinking to himself, "Any day now, it has to come any day now…"

"James," his mother called up the stairs, "I think your letter's here!" she called, trying to hide the certainty, pride and excitement from her voice.

"Thanks, Mum. I'll be down in a sec!" He threw on a pair of shorts and his glasses. Even though his family was pureblood they liked to wear the lighter muggle clothes then wizard robes in the summer.

James flew down the stairs with a giddy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He downed a glass of pumpkin juice in two seconds as he tore open the thick yellowish parchment paper. His eyes hardly registered the address on the front or the seal on the back. He only cared about the contents.

"Dear Mr. Potter," he started, "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." He sighed happily. He'd known all along he'd end up at Hogwarts, but it still felt good to read it off the fresh parchment paper. His home for the next seven years…

Suddenly, as the clock struck noon, a surge of supreme happiness and contentment filled him. Hogwarts was a good place for him to be.

"James!" Mr. And Mrs. Potter grabbed him in a big hug, "We're so proud of you! I knew you'd go to Hogwarts! And you'll be a perfect student, just like you father was!" Mrs. Potter gushed. Tears of happiness squeezed through her eyes. We'll go get all your books and everything first thing in the morning.

James fell to sleep excited and eager. Hogwarts, wonderful Hogwarts…


	2. 2 Diagon Alley

Author's note:

In the last chapter I said four years instead of seven when James was talking about Hogwarts. My mistake, I was thinking about high school. Any other typos I'm sorry about. I'm not the best typer so whatever isn't caught by spell check or my not so great editing will be posted. Sorry again.

This one's only focusing on James, but we will see Lily. Sorry if you were hoping for more of the muggle opinion of the wizarding world. That will have to wait. I know this one's a bit short, but after the last chapter I thought this would be a relief.

Ch. 2 Diagon Alley

James watched as Mr. Potter tapped his wand on the bricks behind the Leaky Cauldron to get into Diagon Alley. He'd been here a million times before, but never to shop for school supplies. How many other kids would be there, getting ready for Hogwarts too?

As the portal opened and James's mother rushed him through, he realized his life would be entirely different once he was at school. He regretted the loss of his easy childhood at the Potter Manor but was excited at the prospect of all the new people in his dorm, which would, of course, be Griffindor.

Speaking of Griffindor, a flash or red caught James's eye, entering Flourish and Blotts. He wanted to know who could possibly have hair like that but they needed to go to Gringotts before they could go into any of the shops.

The goblins always terrified James and as they flew thorough the dark passageways he forgot all about the flame haired person outside. Once they left Gringotts and got to Flourish and Blotts the red head was gone, but he thought he glanced the person going into the apothecary.

His parents took James to get an ice cream at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, the apothecary (which was devoid of all red haired people), and finally to Eeylops Owl Emporium for a giant snowy owl he named Flamel after a man from his History of Magic textbook.

Mrs. Potter wanted to look at dress robes (she felt sure he would need them even though the letter didn't say to bring any), and Mr. Potter, who is unable to turn down conversation of any sort, noticed someone he knew from the ministry and went off to talk about some useless, in James's eleven-year-old mind, topic like biting doorknobs or relations with the muggle Prime Minister. With his mother's permission and a promise to meet her at Madame Malkin's as soon as he cold, James entered the dark, cool shop where he would purchase his wand, Olivander's.

As soon as the door closed almost all the sound from the street outside was cut off but for a faint murmur of voices. James inhaled the heady scent of wood polish; it reminded him of the polish for his broomstick. "Hello…" he called.

Just as James was turning to leave he heard a scratchy voice from behind him, "I wondered when I would be seeing you Mr. Potter. I knew this was the year you would finally be entering Hogwarts. I'm right I presume, as you are here?" Mr. Olivander finished steadily.

All James could do was nod mutely and try not to look like a fool. "Now let me see, what wand would be right for you… how about this one? Holly, dragon heartstring, 11 and a quarter inches, ideal for healing." Mr. Olivander trailed off as he handed James the wand. He waved it slightly but Mr. Olivander snatched it away.

"That's not quite it. I don't suppose, seven inches," Mr. Olivander produced another wand, "yew, phoenix feather, very powerful…" but James had barely touched the wand when Mr. Olivander whisked it back into its box.

"How about this one, perhaps?" Mr. Olivander handed James yet another wand. "Phoenix feather again, ten inches, Beechwood, more of a charms type of wand." This time something did happen once James had the wand; a few papers on Mr. Olivander's desk started smoking. The wand was out of James's hand in a split second and the old man was off again to find yet another possible wand.

James was starting to get worried, what if every wand in the shop wasn't right for him and Mr. Olivander said that he just wasn't supposed to be a wizard then. He blanched at the thought of being a squib…

"I think this one will be the fit!" James jumped as the wand maker returned, "mahogany, dragon heartstring, eleven inches, excellent for transfiguration…" As soon as James held the wand he knew this was it, he felt a warm feeling through his fingers and red and gold sparks shot out the end.

Mr. Olivander wrapped up the wand in brown paper and James paid him seven galleons. "Remember, no Olivander's wand it exactly the same. You won't perform spells as well with another wizard's wand. Good luck at school," he finished. James thanked him and turned towards the door. He walked out of the shop with the feeling of those pale, misty eyes boring into his back.

Once he was out in the crowded streets again, James felt like he could finally breath again. He glanced at the quickly sinking sun and set off for the robe shop at a jog.

Just before James reached Madame Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, he saw the fiery haired person leaving. With his closer view he saw that the person had long hair, clearly a girl. She turned her head and he caught her eyes for a moment. Those eyes stunned him. They were bright green, like his lawn after a springtime downpour. In his shocked hesitation, a few people blocked James's view and once they were gone the green-eyed girl had disappeared.

James sighed and entered the robe shop. He was standing on the stool being fitted, trying to decide if he had ever seen eyes like that before when an idea struck him. He waited till his mother was out of ear shot then asked Madame Malkin if the girl who had just been in the store was going to Hogwarts.

"No, she was Durmstrang I believe" at James's crestfallen face she continued, "You mean the raven haired one, really tall?"

"No," he responded too quickly to appear casually curious, "no, the one with red hair and bright green eyes," he looked up hopefully.

"Oh, Lily," Madame Malkin's eyes cleared with recognition and a knowing smile, "yes, she's Hogwarts. A sweet girl. Muggle born, poor thing, she'll have some trouble at the school with all that pureblood nonsense. She was quite friendly."

At James's silent "Oh…" and the hopeful look on his face, Madame Malkin chuckled and went to go get a few more pins.

"Kids," she murmured to herself as she shook her head.

That night when James went to bed he thought about the bright-eyed girl, the one with the fiery hair. Lily. He wanted to meet Lily he needed to meet Lily. He'd never even heard her speak a single word and he was already mesmerized and fascinated by her.

Lily…


	3. 3 Platform 9 34

Author's note:

Another long one, I'm afraid. I didn't notice any mistakes in the last chapter, though I'm sure there are a few. This one's a little boring, but I have to set up the foundations before I can make the story a bit more complex. Hope you like it.

I just want to add that this is my first fic so please don't be too critical. I'm getting ther, but please review. I'ld love to hear your opinions and predictions.

Chapter 3: Platform 9 ¾

As the Evans's old, rusty red Ford Angela pulled into King's Cross Station in London, Lily felt the first surge of nerves. "What if I don't fit in? I only just learned that magic is real a week ago! The rest of them probably already know loads! …" She thought to herself fearfully as her face became paler and paler. She had in fact read the first chapter of all her textbooks and skimmed heavily the rest of her book.

They walked slowly into the station. Lily could sense Petunia's jealousy and her parent's tense faces. They seemed as though they half thought they were in a very strange dream from which they would wake up, with a 100 muggle, or human, family as they pictured themselves.

Lily checked her letter again, "So I just have to walk straight at that wall, and I'll go through it?" Lily asked questioningly. Her parent's faces were as blank as hr own, and Petunia looked like she wanted very much for Lily to just bounce back off the wall and fall over.

Not seeing any other option, Lily turned her questioning gaze towards her cat, Lorenzo. They had purchased him in Diagon Alley. At the pet store they said no one would take him because he's schizophrenic so Lily, pitying his loveless life adopted him. At least she was guarantied one friend at Hogwarts, assuming he's in his friendly mood.

Lorenzo gave a meow of encouragement (Lily could swear he understood people), so Lily turned back to her family.

"I guess this is it," she said, failing miserably to hide her delight from her voice. "I'll miss you all," she lied, or at least she lied about the 'all' part.

"Oh, honey, we'll miss you too!" Mrs. Evans choked back her tears as she hugged her eldest daughter.

"Make us proud, dear," Mr. Evans said, supporting his now sobbing wife.

"I'll see you at Christmas," Petunia said shortly. She was clearly not looking forward to it.

"Bye everyone, I love you." And with that, Lily turned towards the wall and walked straight at it and disappeared.

"Oh my," Mrs. Evans said with apparent fear. Once they was sure no one noticed the vanishing girl they walked back out to the now boiling hot car and drove home. The wizarding world barely touched their lives at all.

There was almost no one on the platform when Lily arrived. She had made sure she would be early so that she would have a chance to watch all the magic families. She couldn't imagine what their lives are like, living surrounded by magic, must be amazing.

Once Lily had herself settled in a compartment she sat down next to a window and watched the platform become more crowded. She was lost in watching a woman zap all the dust off her son with her wand when someone plopped down next to her. She had startlingly blonde, almost white, hair all the way to the middle of her back with blue eyes that seemed to bare her soul. From the girl's comfortably slouched position, Lily could tell that it didn't even occur to the girl to ask if she could sit with Lily.

"Hello there. I'm Ellyse Mellow. Nice to meet you." she said holding out her hand and flashing her stunning teeth at Lily. She was wearing jeans and a flowy pale blue blouse comfortably as though she lived in muggle clothes.

"Lily Evans," Lily replied evenly, taking Ellyse's hand. "Are you from a muggle family?" she asked, hoping to have found a friend.

"Sure am. It actually turns out that my great grandmother is too, but I didn't know that until I got my letter. I was so shocked when it arrived! Who would have thought? Magic, you know. All these years it's been there and we just didn't know it! Amazing don't you think? And now I'm here. Wow… And what about you? Are you muggle born too?" Ellyse had spoken so quickly that Lily was a bit startled when she stopped short, but recovered with grace.

"Yes I am," she replied, warming to this friendly face that was in the same lot as she. "It caused quite a ruckus when I got my letter." Lily began to tell about her revealing morning when an abrupt cough interrupted the easy flow of conversation. Two girls were standing in the doorway. One was tall and regal looking with shoulder length, jet-black hair and equally dark eyes that appeared cold but with a well hidden a glint of kindness in their depths. The other was short with pale bluish green eyes and short, light brown hair; the best word to describe her would be pixyish. It was the pixy girl who had coughed.

"Would you mind if we sat with you?" she asked with too much courtesy in her words, "everywhere else is full." She was already moving into the compartment.

It was Ellyse who answered, "Why yes, of course. We were just talking about how we got our letters. Are you muggle born? We both are. Oh yes, I'm Ellyse Mellow and this is Lily Evans. Who are you any way?"

The pixy girl seemed a bit offended by the onslaught of questions but the black haired girl didn't mind at all, "I'm Jordan Gray. I'm a half blood; my mum's a witch but she was at Beauxbatons." Lily had no idea what Beauxbatons was.

Jordan's brief speech gave the pixy girl time to recover her politely distant face, "I'm Samantha Lorne, but you can call me Sam. _I'm_ a pureblood, both of _my_ parents went to Hogwarts."

Ellyse was clearly unhappy with Sam's cool speech, "Well excuse me for breathing," she said rolling her now icy blue eyes and turning back to face Lily.

Suddenly Lily and Jordan started giggling, then they broke out into uncontrolled laughter at Ellyse's annoyed antics. Ellyse swung back in to her normal, blissful mood and she laughed too disregarding for the moment that they were laughing at her. Sam failed her attempt to appear above such behavior and they all laughed uncontrollably as the train pulled away from the platform.

James wanted to make sure he was early for the train so that he could find Lily and introduce himself to her. Indeed as soon as he said goodbye to his parents and turned towards the train he saw her brilliant hair disappear into a doorway. A couple of fourth years got to the door before him though so he had to wait. By the time he was on board she was already in a compartment.

James nonchalantly glanced into compartment windows but he didn't see any. He heard a cruel voice a few compartments ahead. "What, is my wittle baby first year cousin gonna defend an idiotic third year that wants nothing to do with him? Would you like to try and duel me, pretty boy?" the cold and amused girl's voice teased. Lily would have to wait.

As James crept closer he heard the response, "Just leave him alone, Bella. The year hasn't even started yet. You'll have plenty of time to harass younger students then."

This sounded pretty bad, "Well hello." James popped around the corner, hoping to end the fight before anyone got hurt, "Is there a problem?"

"Why, another little first year who feels like starting the year with an extra set of ears," Bella, who had heavily lidded eyes, long black hair, and a queenly aura, seemed delighted.

Her cousin, who was equally dark but with a glimmer of humor in his eyes although dimmed by the fight, was not, "Just go away. Don't bother getting yourself into trouble too."

"I'm not going anywhere," James muttered to the boy, then continued in a louder voice, this time to Bella, "Do you really want all these witnesses? Now there are three of us to stand against you."

"Oh, he won't say a thing," she said gesturing to the cowering boy on the floor, "and I can keep you quiet," she continued, but she had noticed the more crowded corridor and nodded briskly. "Until next time then, boys," she said with mock courtesy and departed.

As soon as Bella was gone the boy on the floor stood, "Thanks," he said sarcastically, "now she's going to tell everyone I need first years to stand up for me." He clearly missed the fact that he did need first years to stand up for him James thought and was about to say when the boy pushed them into the corridor and slammed the door.

"I'm James Potter," James said calmly, lifting his trunk and Flamel's cage. "Shall we find a compartment?"

"Yeah, sure," the boy responded gruffly, he was clearly still angry with his cousin. "I'm Sirius Black, by the way," he hesitated, "listen, th--"

"You don't have to thank me," James interrupted him as he began checking windows for empty compartments. "She just needed a bit of a friendly reminder that she doesn't rule the world," he added with a laugh.

"Bella needs more then that, but every bit helps," Sirius corrected. James flashed him an amused grin, which Sirius returned, and they kept looking. Finally they chose a compartment with only one person inside since there were none empty.

"Do you mind?" James asked the boy inside gesturing to the seat on his right.

"Not at all," said the boy, sitting up. He was tall and thin, with dusty brown hair and chocolate eyes. He also seemed worn, tired as though he had not slept much recently. "I'm Remus Lupin."

"James Potter."

"Sirius Black."

"Nice to meet you. Was it you two I heard fighting with that girl a few compartments away? It sounded like you were ready to kill your cousin, Sirius," Remus seemed to be hiding a glint of amusement from his voice at the two reckless boys he was sitting with, "I would have lent a hand but I'm rather sick at the moment and wouldn't have been any help."

"Don't worry about it, we handled pretty well." Sirius grinned at James. "Well what happened was…" Sirius started the story. James saw that clearly he was starting the year with two great friends.


	4. 4 The Sorting

Author's note:

I personally wasn't too fond of the last chapter, it was a bit dull but I do love Ellyse. I promise she's not a complete airhead and Sam isn't really that, … witchy. I absolutely love the bit about Jordan in here. I promise to explain it, eventually (evil laugh). Sorry, not much Lily in this one either. All the James/Lily stories I've read seem to focus on her so much that I wanted to spend more time writing about James. This one is really long but I couldn't find any way to cut it down more then I did.

Please review with your favorite quotes thus far. I'm going to post everyone's favorites after every five chapters. Now, to be sorted…

Chapter 4: The Sorting

James stared at the glowing Hogwarts Castle awestruck as he glided across the lake in a boat with Remus, Sirius, and some pudgy little boy who didn't say anything. "Home, sweet home," he muttered to himself. Remus heard him despite the quiet tone of James's and flashed him a grin as they pulled into a little harbor.

A giant man named Hagrid gestured them up the stone steps into the dim dungeon hallway lit only by a few smoky torches. "They aren't exactly rolling out the welcome wagon, are they?" Sirius whispered with a bark like laugh although James thought it was perfect and exactly what he had expected. Apparently no one but James heard him because everyone else's faces remained nervous and panicky.

They swung through several galleries and down a multitude of stairways until James was thoroughly lost until they abruptly stopped as Hagrid knocked on a massive door. It was considerably pleasanter here but James thought he preferred the endless hallways that you could so easily lose yourself in. A severe looking witch with her hair in a tight bun opened the door and cast a disdainful look over the terrified students below her. "Here they are, Professor," Hagrid said and then he turned to walk away with a reassuring wink for the students.

"Thank you, Hagrid," the woman replied evenly, then gestured the group into a small chamber.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, I am Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress," she said, "When you enter the great hall," she pointed to a forbidding looking door behind her, "you will be sorted into your houses and eat the start of term banquet at that house's family. You will live in your house dormitories, _separate_ for males and females, and relax in your House's Common Room during what free time you have. The houses are Gryffindor, of which I am head, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. All the Houses are extremely prestigious and none are better then any other. At the end of the year the House Cup will be awarded to the house with the most points. Model behavior and good performance in classes will earn your house points, while rule breaking will lose points," James swore he could feel her eyes linger on his face for a moment. "The sorting will begin in a few minutes; I suggest you neaten up."

"What's she got stuck up her ass!" Sirius said as soon as the Professor was gone. He James and Remus held back their laughter to the best of their ability while a few nearby students shot them disgruntled looks.

Professor McGonagall returned and led them into the Great Hall. Hundreds of students stared curiously as the timid first years walked forward. James purposefully ruffled his hair even further and glanced at Sirius through the corner of his eyes. Sirius looked as perfectly comfortable as James did. Even though his parents hadn't told him what to expect at the sorting (they hadn't wanted to ruin it for him), James knew he'd get by easily.

The students lined up at the front of the hall without any idea what was happening. All the school seemed to be staring at a ratty old hat sitting on a three-legged stool. As James turned to face the hat as well it began to sing.

I may seem a tatty, beat up fellow,

But my thoughts are not quite so mellow.

I've been here much longer then you, you see,

For I'm here to decide where you ought to be.

Two of the greatest wizards, long ago,

And two powerful witches, equally so,

Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin,

Founded this school, which you now sit in.

To Gryffindor with those courageous and true,

To Ravenclaw with those who with wits, their enemies, slew,

To Slytherin with the cunning and sly,

And to Hufflepuff all those who were unwanted, by and by.

Then there came a day for them to move on,

But they wanted their legacy to live through the dawn,

So they conjured me up,

To continue to keep,

The memory of them,

Now in their learning now you'll seep.

When the hat concluded the hall burst into applause. Professor McGonagall read off the first name as soon as the cheering died down, "Abbott, Maggie…" An auburn haired girl stumbled up to the stool and the hat was placed on her head, held off her shoulders only by her rather large ears.

"Hufflepuff!" the hat called, and the Hufflepuff table applauded her clearly relieved and unsteady walk to sit down in one of the empty seats.

"Black, Sirius…" Professor McGonagall called. A bit of expectant muttering emerged from the Slytherin table. Sirius shot a dark look towards them, then pretended he hadn't even noticed they were there. Next think he knew, the hat was covering his eyes and the rest of the hall had disappeared from sight and mind.

"Ahhh…" the hat said coolly into his ear, "another ambitious pureblood. That doesn't require much thought. Sl--"

"No!" Sirius whispered back, "I don't want to be in Slytherin, I want to be different."

"Well, you would have thought. You're brave to stand up to what they will say, that you are a traitor."

"I don't care," Sirius argued stubbornly. He found it hard to believe he was having a conversation with a hat.

"Very well then, I suppose there's only one other option, Gryffindor!" the hat concluded his speech.

Sirius stood up to uncertain applause and a bit of hissing from the Slytherins. A Black, a Gryffindor? Sirius didn't care at the moment. This was unexplored territory for a Black and he would prove that he is better then all of his family.

Next Doney, Michael became a Ravenclaw and Dormer, Laura became a Hufflepuff. Then "Evans, Lily…" was called. James started a bit. He had hardly thought of her since the train ride, he hoped she became a Gryffindor.

The old hat dropped onto Lily's head. "Well, well, well," it said in her ear. "I see you are quite intelligent although a bit cold, outwardly at least, and with good reason, too. But where should you go. You knew all that to start with, I'm sure, but there's something more to you, a stubbornness, so strong it can't be broken; courage. You don't know it yet, but I'm sure it will help you some day. Well then, Gryffindor!"

Lily nearly fainted with relief. She had no idea what the hat was talking about, but she was glad she was in Gryffindor; from all Sam had told her it sounded like the best house.

"Hanson, Julia…"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Garland, Claudia…"

"Gyffindor."

"Gray, Jordan…"

Jordan took a deep breath and walked forward. Her mantra that she lived by played in her head, "Never let them see you cry. Never let them see you ashamed. Never let them see you fear. Never let them see you in love. You are a rock. You are steady as the river. Hold yourself above their petty world and you shall never fall." She had learned long ago to always be the one in power and she wasn't about to forget it.

Jordan perched herself haughtily on the stool as though it was a throne. "So, you are quite prideful I see. You've learned to control yourself. Interesting, quite interesting… I suppose Slytherin could be good for you, but you seem to think you're above the cunning Slytherins. That attitude could get you in trouble," the hat stayed silent for a moment, "I suppose, Gryffindor!"

Jordan barely suppressed her glee. She stood gracefully and swept over to the Gryffindor table to sit next to Lily.

"Jones, Stacey…"

"Slytherin!"

"Lorne, Samantha…"

Sam sent a hopeful glance towards Lily and Jordan. She wanted to be in the same house as her good friends, and Gryffindor had been her mother and her father's house. "They'll be so let down if I'm not a Gryffindor," she thought desperately to herself as Professor McGonagall slipped the hat onto her head.

"You certainly have everything planned out. Your whole life I see here, and completely organized," the hat commented lightly, "I see your desires, but I know where you belong." Sam was too terrified to even think to ask to be in Gryffindor. "Ravenclaw!"

Sam sat still on the stool, paralyzed with fear. "Ravenclaw," she thought, "I wasn't supposed to be in Ravenclaw!" but then Professor McGonagall removed the hat and she had no choice but to stand up and walk to the Ravenclaw table. The dull shock hadn't penetrated her shell just yet and the applause didn't reach her ears.

"Lupin, Remus…"

Remus walked forward with a bit of fear for his dark secret. What if the hat thought he wasn't safe enough for the school and refused to sort him? It's first sentence seemed to confirm his fear, "Oh my, you've kept a secret and a half! There is a first time for everything. You're a rare one indeed, to risk your classmates' scorn should they discover you. Easy enough then, Gryffindor!"

Remus couldn't believe his luck once he was walking back to his seat. He had hoped to be in Gryffindor but he hadn't counted on it happening.

The hat barely touched the head of Malfoy, Lucius when it screamed Slytherin. A murmur of laughter filled the hall. And then, "Mellow, Ellyse…"

Ellyse tossed her hair and walked forward. She was clearly terrified out of her wits but her step didn't falter for a second. She moved quickly so that it would all be over soon.

She blinked her now pale blue eyes on the stool and waited for her view to darken when the hat came down on her head so that she could no longer see the expectant faces around her. She had a certain affection for the spotlight and wished she could watch the entire hall's eyes on her. "My, my, proud as a peacock, you are. A bit scatterbrained I see, but much more intelligent then most would notice," Ellyse didn't find the hat very complimentary, "I would love the irony of putting you in Ravenclaw, but it doesn't fit. Hmmm, better be Gryffindor!"

Ellyse stood and glanced proudly towards the Hufflepuff table; Sam had scornfully told her she would probably be a Hufflepuff while they were on the train. Instead she lowered herself into the seat next across the table from Jordan and Lily and resisted the temptation of throwing Sam a satisfied smirk.

Norfolk, Terry and Oliver, Richard both joined the Hufflepuffs and then Potter, James was called.

There was no indecision in the sorting hat's voice when it was placed on James's head, "Ah, well you aren't a bit afraid are you?"

"Not at all," James responded neutrally as though he always had conversations with hats.

The hat gave a coarse laugh, "You have ambition, and endurance. You have a desire to succeed, you would do well in Slytherin."

"No, I wouldn't! I'll leave the school before I become one of them!" James countered, feeling the first flicker of uncertainty. Then he had a brief moment when the power tempted him, perhaps… "No, it wouldn't work out," he finished a bit less forcefully.

"If you are sure, no regrets then?" the hat waited, then, "GRYFFINDOR!" it yelled cuing yet another outburst of applause.

"Thanks," James muttered as the hat was pulled away. He thought he heard the hat's gruff laugh but he couldn't be sure. With a grin James sat down next to Sirius. To his annoyance Lily was sitting several seats away so he couldn't start a conversation.

"Pettigrew, Peter…" The pudgy boy, who had been in the boat with James, Remus, and Sirius, stumbled up to the stool with the hat on it. Surprisingly he was sorted into Gryffindor. Sirius looked a bit disgusted but he didn't say anything.

Prichard, Margaret became a Ravenclaw and then it was Severus, Snape's turn to be sorted. The hat was on his head for almost a whole minute. He seemed to be arguing with it similar to James. Finally it sorted him into Slytherin and Severus walked away with a smug look on his face that James dearly wished to get rid of.

Finally the Sorting Ceremony was concluded when Zulus, Sarah was sorted into Ravenclaw and Dumbledore stood to speak. "I know you are all as eager to dine as I and so I have only a few words and they are 'Nitwit, Oddment, Blubber, and Tweak'!" with a grin the headmaster sat back down and watched as the feast magically appeared upon the golden plates on the many tables.

James ate a little bit of everything until he felt he couldn't fit a bit more. Unfortunately for him, desserts then appeared and he "had to" eat some of that as well. He was almost completely contented but he couldn't help but wish he had a chance to talk to Lily. Remus caught James's eye just once as though to ask him what he was thinking but James kept his face blank. Ellyse also saw James's wavering attention on his conversation with Sirius, but thought nothing of it. No one could help noticing Lily's fiery hair. It didn't mean anything she assumed.

Eventually the plates cleared themselves and Dumbledore gave the start of term notices. The Prefects led the first years up to the House Common Rooms and they all dropped from exhaustion once they reached the dormitories. James made some excuse to Remus for staring at Lily throughout the entire meal and fell asleep dreaming of ways to introduce himself to her the next day. To his annoyance, he didn't get a chance.


	5. 5 Week One

Author's Note:

Yeah, some screwy stuffs been going on and I've been sick for a while so sorry if the last chapter wasn't great. In response to PotterGeek020, I realize that Hufflepuffs are really nice, but they are known for not being that intelligent. I promise I don't have anything against them (miss you, Cedric Diggory!).

Please, please. Favorite quotes! I want to post everybody's favorites at the beginning of the next chapter.

Ch. 5 Week One

Lily woke herself up as soon as the first streaks of pink began to show on the horizon. Lorenzo was in his friendly personality for the time being so she cuddled him for a minute then crept to the bathroom so that she didn't wake her roommates. Ellyse had told them all that she would sleep through anything (she also happened to talk in her sleep), but the other girls were light sleepers and Lily had a hunch that Jordan could be quite a, a _witch_ in the morning.

Lily entered the silent Common Room and was glad to see it empty. She went out the portrait hole and looked around. The one problem with being an early riser is that there never seems to be anyone around to get directions from. She sighed and guessed. After several wrong turns and getting caught in the trick step of one of the staircases, Lily got reasonable directions from the Hufflepuff who pulled her out of the staircase and reached the Great Hall in about twenty minutes. She ate a small breakfast in the almost empty hall then grabbed a few pieces of toast and went outside to watch the sun finish rising. She took a deep breath as she stepped on the dew-coated grass and continued wandering, all the while praying that she wasn't dreaming and hoping that if she was she would never wake up.

ii

James woke with a start. He had hoped to be up early so he could wait for Lily in the Great Hall. He glanced out the window and was reassured by the dim light in the sky, but something bright caught his eye. Only Lily had hair that vibrant. He couldn't believe that she was up so early. It wasn't even seven yet. He threw his robes on and dashed out of the dorm. Unfortunately for him there was still virtually no one in the corridors and he was soon lost. The only person he met was a Slytherin who was more then happy to point him in he absolute wrong direction. About forty-five minutes later a sympathetic Ravenclaw gave him overly precise directions but by the time James reached the Entrance Hall Lily wasn't on the grounds or in the Great Hall anymore.

He had his breakfast in a sulky mood, but Sirius and Remus came down to eat as well and sat on either side of him. Lily sat far away from him when she reentered the hall with her friends and then Professor McGonagall was handing out the schedules and he had no choice but to go get his books and attempt to find his way to class.

The first week of school was possibly the most difficult James had ever had. He was constantly lost, and thinking about Lily certainly didn't help him remember where on earth he was walking. Classes went well enough, especially transfiguration, but his constant attempts to attract Lily's attention gave him a reputation of a rather bad student.

Lily didn't have any distractions at all. She got lost simply because of her poor sense of direction. She did, however, do incredibly well in all her classes. Magic fascinated Lily so much that she enjoyed studying and became a bit of a favorite in all her classes, especially potions and charms.

The Gryffindors had most of their classes with the Ravenclaws. Sam was glad to be able to see all her friends so often but she and Lily started a rather comical rivalry in all their classes except for potions since they were partners. Everyone wondered if Evans or Lorne did well this day or that. It seemed like all the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years were keeping a tally of the two girls' accomlishments.It was after potions class in the last block of Friday that James and Lily finally met. It wasn't exactly what James had planned.

"Bye, Sam. See you later," Lily called as she left potions class. She wanted to run up to the dormitories to check on Lorenzo before she joined her friends at dinner. He had been in a bad mood that morning and she wanted to make sure he wasn't completely destroying the velvet curtains on her four-poster bed.

Once Lorenzo was settled in the windowsill with a pair of Lily's old socks that she could afford to have destroyed, Lily set off back to the Great Hall. The entire school was at dinner by then and the corridors were creepily empty. She hurried through the halls hoping she was going the right way. She recognized a suit of armor and was sure she was almost there (although she had a feeling he suits of armor walked around), when she heard voices. One was a young boy's who was pleading. There were a couple others at least one girl and several boys. She glanced in the direction that she thought the Great Hall was then sighed and turned towards the voices. She couldn't just leave that boy all alone. He sounded like he was in serious trouble. She glanced around the corner and gasped, pulling herself back around the corner and breathing heavily.

"Who's there?" the girl's voice called.

ii

Down in the Great Hall Ellyse had noticed her friend's prolonged absence. "Where's Lily?" she asked Jordan.

"Taking care of her cat," Jordan responded neutrally. "Creepy thing," she muttered to herself.

_Clearly Jordan isn't worried,_ Ellyse thought to herself. She just had this nervous feeling in her stomach that something was not right. She glanced down the table to see if anyone else was as uncomfortable as her but they all seemed to be glad about the end of the long and exhausting week. The only other face that showed her concern was James Potter's. He had heard Ellyse's comment to Jordan and felt it was all the encouragement he needed. He stood, made and excuse to his friends and left the Hall. Ellyse followed.

"Where are you going?" she questioned as soon as they were in the Entrance Hall. He gave her the same unconvincing lie he had told his friends and started to walk away, "That's not true," Ellyse grabbed his arm and made him face her, "Are you going to look for Lily?"

"Fine, yes," James answered, pulling his arm free and starting up the stairs. "What are you doing?" he asked Ellyse as she followed him up the staircase.

"I'm coming with you obviously," Ellyse gave him a surprised look, "she's my best friend." James just shrugged and kept walking. He heard a voice he hadn't hoped to hear any time soon, Sirius's cousin, Bella.

He and Ellyse walked slowly up to a corner and peered around it. They quickly absorbed the scene before them. Peter was crouched on the ground next to the wall, begging Bella and two other Slytherins who were with her to leave him alone.

James pushed Ellyse back a few feet and looked straight into her frightened electric blue eyes. "Go find Professor McGonagall right away," James chose the strictest person he could think of to handle the situation, "tell her there's a fight in the charms corridor. Do you know how to get back to the Great Hall?" Despite his wavering attention, James had mastered a knowledge of most of the school hallways by that point. She nodded quickly and turned to run back the way they had come.

James snuck up to look around the corner again. He saw a flash of red and realized that Lily had looked around a corner at the opposite side of the corridor as him. At least he had found her. Now if only he could get her away from the fight as well as stay to help Peter...

She hadn't been as quiet as James, however, and Bella quickly looked up and demanded to know who was there. She nodded to one of the boys who were with her. James looked closer and realized it was the obnoxious boy from the sorting, Severus Snape. He couldn't let that git get near his Lily. He took a breath and stepped around the corner.

ii

A million ideas ran through Lily's head. She knew she ought to either run or face the Slytherins but she couldn't make her legs work. She saw the shadow of one of them waking towards her, painfully slow. He was almost there…

"Why hello!" the shadow stopped and turned at a voice Lily had never heard before. A boy, his words appeared to be friendly and amiable though his voice held a threat in it. "What on earth are you doing to poor Peter?" the boy asked as all three Slytherins turned to face him. No one cared about Lily anymore. She peered around the corner to watch the scene develop.

"Well if it isn't Mr. Potter. The brave friend of my dear cousin Sirius," the girl stepped forward, snakelike. The two boys with her walked to either side of James as if to surround him. Peter lay on the floor where they had left him, as forgotten as Lily.

"It's so nice to see you again, Bella, and looking so ravishing as well," the boy called James caught Lily's eye and flicked his head towards the boy to his left, a dark greasy haired boy Lily recognized from the sorting, Severus Snape.

"I must say I agree. I have been so hoping to see you again," Bella purred, "We never had a chance to finish our discussion at our last meeting on the train."

James was clearly not registering her words, simply trying to delay her attack untill Lily was ready, "I know you are quite right. We need to finish that some day. Perhaps over tea on Sunday?" he flicked his eyes toward Peter then to the heavy set boy on his right. Lily slipped along the wall behind Bella and shook Peter firmly, pointing to the boy James wanted him to jinx.

"Sunday's not good for me," Bella answered sweetly, "I have a meeting with some unfortunate Hufflepuffs. Why not now?"

"I agree," James answered calmly, his eyes blazing into Lily's. She nodded. "how about, NOW!" he yelled and whipped out his wand, disarming Bella in the process.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Lily yelled and Severus's wand flew out of his hand, but Peter misaimed his spell which bounced of the stone wall and blew James's wand to the other side of the corridor. Lily disarmed the large boy who had been Peter's target as well, but James, having no other option and thinking the boy still had his wand, dove at him and tackled him to the ground.

It was chaos. Dinner was ending and the sound of student's voices was getting closer. Peter, Severus, and Bella all grabbed their wands and ran. Lily knew she couldn't just take off but she didn't know how to help either. Disarming was the only dueling spell she had learned in their first week so she resorted to simply trying to pull the boys off each other. And then Professor McGonagall appeared.

"Boys!" she yelled, and then got a closer look, "Potter, Evans, Crabbe! What on earth is going on here?"

"Well you see, Professor…" Lily started.

"And they had him cornered…" James at least had the grace to look a bit ashamed.

"I didn't do nothin'," the large boy Professor McGonagall had called Crabbe claimed.

"Bella and Severus..."

"Enough! All three of you will serve detention tomorrow night. Potter and Evans will be cleaning Professor Flitwick's room and Crabbe will be in the trophy room, without magic. I expect you to be where I told you by seven. Am I understood?"

"Yes Professor," they answered meekly and watched as she stalked away.

"Well that was unfair," James stated frankly as he bent to pick up his wand. Lily stared at him for a moment. She couldn't believe that he didn't seem to care that they had detention. Crabbe just walked away towards the dungeon, grumbling about his deserter "friends". Lily turned and walked the opposite way, towrds the Gryffindor Common Room. "Where are you going?" James asked Lily, "Aren't you going to get dinner?"

"I'm not hungry," Lily didn't even slow her walk or turn her head to answer.

"Why not?" James followed her.

"Because I'm not. Why don't you just leave me alone and go get yourself dinner," she demanded fiercely and continued walking.

James stopped and watched her receding back. He couldn't understand why she was so angry with him and was about to ask but she had already whipped around the corner and out of sight.


	6. Characters

Sorry, this isn't a real chapter. There is a bit of confusion as to which character is which so I'm going to clear that all up by writing all my characters out here and all the information about them that you need to know, just yet. FYI: there is some information about characters that I haven't revealed yet in the story so naturally, I won't be writing it here. Most of them aren't fully developed since I've only gotten to the first week. Keep in mind that most people change between 11 and 17 (heavy sarcasm). How they act now isn't necessarily how they will act later so my description of their personality is more like guidelines to the motivations each character has rather then actual rules. I hate to be predictable, hint, hint I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can.

In the mean time please review and leave favorite quotes. When I say favorite quotes I mean from my story, not from the Harry Potter books (in which case I would just copy all 6 books word for word which could take quite a while). Thanks so much for reading everybody.

Characters _James Potter_

House: Gryffindor

Family: His parents are Fitzwilliam, and Elizabeth Potter (I love _Pride and Prejudice_).

Blood: Pureblood

Birthday: May 12th

Description: tall, messy black hair, hazel eyes with glasses

Relationships: His group of friends, the Marauders (including Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew) pull comical pranks on anyone in the school constantly. He becomes fascinated with _Lily Evans_ the first time he sees her but she develops a bit of a grudge toward him when they are put in detention together (hence, the end of chapter 5). As you probably assume if you've read the Harry Potter books, James falls in love with Lily and asks her out in various embarrassing ways. Naturally she pretty much hates him for it.

Personality: He is a bit arrogant because as the story develops he becomes increasing popular and increasingly independent. He is a good student, but not great, although he does incredibly well in Defense Against the Dark Arts (his parents are aurors) and Transfiguration.

Lily Evans 

House: Gryffindor

Family: Her parents are Peter and Amy Evans. She has a sister Petunia who envies, fears, and hates her because she is a witch.

Blood: muggle born

Birthday: December 31st

Description: shortish, bright red hair, and green, almond shaped eyes

Relationships: Lily is good friends with _Ellyse Mellow, Jordan Gray,_ and_ Samantha Lorne. _She strongly dislikes al the Marauders because of all the pranks they pull on people that she thinks are stupid. Particularly dislikes _James Potter_ because he constantly asks her out even though he knows she doesn't like him.

Personality: Lily is an incredibly talented witch, especially in Charms and Potions. She makes friends easily and is generally a kind person, but she has a very short temper, holds a grudge and is extremely stubborn.

Sirius Black 

House: Gryffindor

Family: His parents are Henry and Amelia Black. He has a younger brother Regulus who is his parent's favorite son. The entire Black family is immersed in the Dark Arts.

Blood: pureblood

Birthday: November 27th

Description: tall, black hair and eyes, extremely attractive

Relationships: He is one of the Marauders and so best friends with _James Potter, Remus Lupin, _and _Peter Pettigrew_. He is very attractive and is known for being a "player" at Hogwarts. Almost every girl in the school wants to date him.

Personality: Sirius is a huge prankster. He doesn't care about anyone but his close friends, but to those who he does care about he is extremely loyal to. He always loves a good joke (especially when he's the one telling it) and laughs constantly.

Ellyse Mellow 

House: Gryffindor

Family: Her parents are William and Sophia Mellow. She has a little sister, Julia, who's eight.

Blood: muggle born. Both of her parents are muggles but her great-grandmother is a witch.

Birthday: July 16th

Description: tall and thin, long bleach blonde hair, blue eyes that change color depending on her mood

Relationships: Ellyse is best friends with _Lily Evans, Jordan Gray, _and _Sam Lorne._ She makes friends with everyone she meets.

Personality: Ellyse is a crazy, scatterbrained, talkative girl with crazy mood swings that show in her eyes. She has "blonde moments" all the time but is actually fairly intelligent.

Remus Lupin 

House: Gryffindor

Family: His parents are John and Marylyn Lupin.

Blood: half blood. John is a squib.

Birthday: October 17th

Description: tall, dusty brown hair, chocolate eyes

Relationships: He is one of the Marauders and so best friends with _James Potter, Sirius Black_, and_ Peter Pettigrew._

Personality: He is a very nice person and a great student, but he is very untrusting because he is a werewolf and expects people to hate him for it.

Jordan Gray 

House: Gryffindor

Family: Her parents are Lucinda and Gregory Gray but they are divorced. Jordan lives with her mother and older sister, Heather, who's a Hufflepuff.

Blood: half blood. Lucinda went to Beauxbatons.

Birthday: December 2nd

Description: tall, long black hair and eyes. Gorgeous

Relationships: Jordan is best friends with Lily Evans, Ellyse Mellow, and Sam Lorne. She is sort of a "man eater" and is constantly dating and then dumping people without even caring.

Personality: Jordan is a really nice person, but she is afraid of trusting people or showing emotion because of her parent's divorce. She comes off as cold to people she isn't friends with but is very loyal and kind to people that are her friends.

Peter Pettigrew 

House: Gryffindor

Family: His parents are Joan and Francis Pettigrew.

Blood: half blood. Francis is a muggle born wizard.

Birthday: March 3rd

Description: short, pudgy, light brown hair and hazel eyes

Relationships: One of the Marauders, but not very close to any of them. He is friends with the Marauders mostly because he doesn't have any other friends. He's not very good with girls.

Personality: Peter is cowardly and easily bribed. He makes friends with whomever he sees as the most likely to give him protection.

Samantha (Sam) Lorne 

House: Ravenclaw

Family: Her parents are Raymond and Susan Lorne.

Blood: pure blood.

Birthday: June 30th

Description: Short, thin, shoulder length light brown hair, blue-green eyes, "pixy like".

Relationships: Good friends with _Lily Evans, Jordan Gray_, and_ Ellyse Mellow_. Makes friends in Ravenclaw as well.

Personality: Sam is stuck up and obnoxious, but truthful. She gives the best advice if you're willing to listen to brutal honesty.

Bellatrix (Bella) Black 

House: Slytherin

Family: Her parents are Claudius and Arachne Black. She has two sisters, Andromeda who's in her sixth year and Narcissa who's a second year. She is _Sirius Black's_ cousin.

Blood: pure blood. Enough said.

Birthday: who cares?

Description: Tall and thin, long black hair and dark, merciless eyes

Relationships: She is a huge bully who enjoys preying on younger students. She is am idol to most Slytherin students and is a ringleader of "future death eaters".

Personality: Bellatrix is cold, cruel, and evil. She doesn't care about anyone and hates all muggle born witches and wizards.

Minor Characters – these are people that I either made up or got from the mastermind herself JK. I'll use some of them eventually I suppose, but at the moment they aren't particularly important to the plot.   
Severus Snape – S 

_**Michael Doney – R**_

_**Claudia Harland – G**_

_**Richard Oliver – H**_

_**Margaret Prichard – R**_

_**Lucius Malfoy – S**_

_**Laura Dormer – H**_

_**Terry Norfolk – H**_

_**Sarah Zulus – R**_

_**Julia Hanson – S**_

_**Maggie Abbot – H**_

_**Stacy Jones – S**_

20

Author's Note:

Well, that should cover it. If I come up with anything else you should know I'll post it. In the meantime, I'll get back to writing the story. Get excited for Lily and James's detention; more affectionately know as their "first date" in my mind (thanks Jett). Love you all for reading!


	7. 6 Detention

Author's Note:

Sorry if you thought that last guy was a real chapter. I promise I was speedwriting on this one since I gypped you guys last time. Oh yeah, and I agree with what I'm sure you're all thinking: my sorting song sucked, but whatever, they're not easy! Two detentions on Saturday night, what will develop?

And now, the best of my writing, chosen by my beloved readers…

FAVORITE QUOTES!

**Ch. 1** – "Let's get some tea," the typical British response to anything, when in doubt, pull out the tea bags.

"We have to keep this on the down low." Mrs. Evan's gossiping mind was ready to burst.

Just as she exited she heard Petunia mutter, "Freak!" but nothing would bring Lily down that day.

**Ch. 2** – She turned her head and he caught her eyes for a moment. Those eyes stunned him. They were bright green, like his lawn after a springtime downpour.

That night when James went to bed he thought about the bright-eyed girl, the one with the fiery hair. Lily. He wanted to meet Lily he needed to meet Lily. He'd never even heard her speak a single word and he was already mesmerized and fascinated by her.

Lily…

**Ch. 3** – "I'll miss you all," she lied, or at least she lied about the 'all' part.

Suddenly Lily and Jordan started giggling, then they broke out into uncontrolled laughter at Ellyse's annoyed antics. Ellyse swung back in to her normal, blissful mood and she laughed too disregarding for the moment that they were laughing at her.

He clearly missed the fact that he did need first years to stand up for him James thought and was about to say when the boy pushed them into the corridor and slammed the door.

**Ch. 4** – _separate_ for males and females

James swore he could feel her eyes linger on his face for a moment.

"What's she got stuck up her ass!"

James purposefully ruffled his hair even further…

"Never let them see you cry. Never let them see you ashamed. Never let them see you fear. Never let them see you in love. You are a rock. You are steady as the river. Hold yourself above their petty world and you shall never fall."

Ellyse didn't find the hat very complimentary, "I would love the irony of putting you in Ravenclaw, but it doesn't fit."

**Ch. 5** – Lily didn't have any distractions at all. She got lost simply because of her poor sense of direction.

Lorenzo was settled in the windowsill with a pair of Lily's old socks that she could afford to have destroyed

We need to finish that some day. Perhaps over tea on Sunday?

Now, if you have any favorites in chapters 6 to 10 please tell me and I'll post them with chapter 11. Now, James gets to ask 20 questions. Try 20 million. (Yes, this chapter is supposed to remind you of Twilight. That's a good book)

Ch. 6 Detention

"So who's in your family?" James waited for Lily to answer as he washed the chalkboard. When she didn't he kept questioning her, "Do you have any siblings? I wish I had a brother." Pause, "What about your parents. Were they excited when you got into Hogwarts?"

Lily gave up trying to ignore him (she was reminded of the muggle game 20 questions). His voice kept penetrating her mental wall, "Haven't you gotten it yet, Potter, that if I didn't answer your first question I won't be answering the rest?" She was scrubbing down the desktops vigorously.

"Nope," James gave Lily a goofy crooked smile that made her blush, "I figured that eventually you would give in and just answer them."

Lily sighed deeply, "I suppose asking you to stop wouldn't do any good, would it?"

"Not at all," James mentally patted himself on the back for finally breaking her shell.

"Fine, what do you want to know?" Lily gave in while cringing inwardly at the invitation to ask anything, "within reason, of course," she added.

"Of course," James agreed. "Who's in your family?" he asked again.

"My mum, dad, and sister Petunia," Lily moved on to a new desk.

"Are they excited for you?"

"My mum and da are, I suppose. Petunia doesn't like anything that involves me, and I think she's jealous," Lily wished she could understand her sister's mind.

"When's your birthday?"

"December 31st," Lily answered without thinking about it then looked up, surprised, "Why are you asking about my birthday?"

"No way," James shook his head with another lopsided grin, "Tonight's my night to ask questions. We'll have to get in trouble together again so that you can ask me whatever you want. What's your favorite color?"

Lily shook her head at the idea of getting into trouble just so that she could talk to this annoying boy, "Red."

"Just like your hair," James smiled to himself. "Favorite season?"

"Winter."

"Flower?"

"Amaryllis."

_Not a lily_ James thought to himself, "Holiday?"

"Christmas."

"Day of the week?"

Lily glanced at James's back, now cleaning the windows, "Thursday."

"Why?"

Lily finished scrubbing the last desk and started to neaten the Professor's desk, "I'm not entirely sure why. It's sort of, that it's almost over so everything seems easier. Like I've survived the worst so now nothing can be as bad," she trailed off and nervously met James's calculating gaze. She was about to ask what was wrong—

"Animal?"

Lily sighed as the examination continued, "deer. Particularly reindeer."

"Why isn't your favorite flower a lily?"

"I don't know; it's just not." James thought he noticed a change in her voice. _So there is a reason_, James thought to himself, _she just doesn't want to tell me right now._

"Any pets?"

"A cat, Lorenzo," Lily really hoped he wouldn't make fu of her cat.

"What's he like? Is he at Hogwarts? Can I meet him?" James was clearly interested in Lily's pet.

"Yeah, he's here, but you wouldn't want to meet him."

James couldn't hold back his curiosity, "Why not?"

"Well, he's a little special," Lily couldn't figure out why she cared what this boy thought about her or her cat, "He's schizophrenic, and most people are afraid of him."

"Really? That's really sad," James answered evenly, organizing Professor Flitwicks's books into alphabetical order, "I don't mind."

Lily hid her surprise by swinging her hair into her face as she swept the floor. "I suppose you can meet him at some point. He goes down into the Common Room occasionally."

"Time of day?"

The cross examination continued. "Night."

Meanwhile in the hospital wing…

"Did you see that old fool's face?" Sirius could barely breathe for laughing so hard.

"He couldn't figure out where it was coming from!" Jordan agreed as they scrubbed bedpans in the hospital.

Earlier that day Professor Slughorn had caught her and Sirius providing Peeves with chalk to throw at Professor Binns. Peeves had been invisible and the Professor was unable to deduce where the pieces of chalk were coming from. Unfortunately for the two entertained students, Professor Slughorn happened to be walking down that corridor (on the way back from the owlry where he was sending out an order for a box of crystallized pineapples) and saw them laughing helplessly at the confused History of Magic teacher. Needless to say, he was not entertained so now they were still laughing about the incident while finishing up their detention.

"Slughorn looked like he was going to explode when he saw us," Sirius loved laughing with someone. Most of the Gryffindors didn't trust him because he's a Black.

"I know. I wish Lils had been there. She would have freaked about making a teacher so upset," Jordan reminisced.

"James would have probably come up with an excuse to give ol' Sluggy. I always look to guilty to get away with anything, but that boy is a gifted liar." Sirius finished with the last bed. Madame Pomfrey should release them soon. In the mean time they leaned up against the wall of the infirmary and waited for their laughter to die out.

"You're not half bad, Sirius Black," Jordan let out a sigh. Not one of annoyance or hopelessness, but of contentment.

"Right back at you Miss Gray," responded Sirius with a ridicules Jamaican accent, sending Jordan into another fit of giggles.

"You're a fool," she commented, but clearly didn't like him a bit less for it, "friends?"

"Friends." Sirius agreed, grabbing her hand and shaking it.

"Mr. Black, Miss Gray, you are dismissed," Madame Pomfrey addressed them curtly and then disappeared back into her office. Sirius and Jordan were able to withhold their laughter until they were in the halls, then set off for Gryffindor Common Room.

That night…

"She's the most amazing girl in the world, Sirius," James ran into the boy's dormitory at midnight. "She's so deep, and intelligent, and pretty, and amazing…" James trailed off and looked at his best friend who clearly hadn't listened to a word he had just said. "Sirius! I'm talking to you!" James yelled in his friend's face.

"What, wait, who, oh," Sirius sat up on his bed. "Sorry, you were saying?"

"Lily Evans is the most amazing and incredible girl that has ever lived!" James was unable to hold a grudge when he was clearly so happy.

"Is that so?" Sirius was attempting to hold back his deep amusement. He wished Jordan was there to laugh with him.

"She's beautiful and deep, and she likes Christmas, and she's smart, and nice, and cold at the same time, and she likes Thursday, and winter, and amaryllis, and nighttime, and deer, and red like her amazing hair, and she's intelligent and beautiful," James finished his speech with a long sigh of longing.

Sirius couldn't hold it in anymore. He had no idea when he started laughing hysterically that this was the first of hundreds of rants he would listen to James give about Lily Evans.

"Mate," Sirius began, "She's a girl! The feminine half of the species are made to be extremely attractive and deadly. They're like death eaters," James glared at Sirius at the comparison to the quickly growing group of dark witches and wizards. Lily wasn't like that, "They pretend to be such good, nice people but they're sneaky and evil and conniving."

"Not Lily!" James argued with a childish pout.

"We need something to get your mind off this Lily Evans. What do you think, guys?" Sirius turned to Remus who was reading and Peter who had just left the bathroom.

"I don't know…" Peter trailed off. He was rather dull in Sirius's completely serious opinion.

"Well, what else does James completely love?" Remus suggested levelly.

All three boys turned to look at James, "I love Thursdays, and nighttime," James was in a completely different world.

"He loves a good laugh," Sirius suggested.

"That's it! We'll pull a bunch of pranks and shake him out of it!" Remus seemed proud of his idea.

"We can be the terror of the school!" Sirius exclaimed in delight.

"Now, I didn't mean for us to cause trouble, just harmless—"

"The Jesters, or the Jokesters," Sirius interrupted.

"But we shouldn't hurt anyone—" Remus started.

"Oh come off it Lupin," James had finally come out of his haze, "It'll be fun. But we need a better name then that, Sirius. The Jokesters is too obvious, not to mention boring."

"How about the Marauders?" Lupin suggested, recognizing defeat.

"I have no idea what Marauder means, but it sounds good, Remus," Sirius agreed. "From now till we die, we four Gryffindors are the inseparable, undividable, invincible Marauders. Official prank pullers and joke tellers of Hogwarts School. All who agree say 'Aye'."

"Aye!"

"Aye."

"Aye!!!!"

"AYE!"

The four boys looked at each other for a moment then broke out into uncontrolled laughter. Hogwarts's inhabitants would never know what had hit them.

Author's Note:

I'm going skiing tomorow so I'll get back to writing as soon as I can but then I'll be back in school so it'll be tricky. Sorry everyone if it takes a while to update, I'll keep posting as soon as I can. Promise.


	8. 7 Tricks

Author's Note:

I must say I loved that last chapter. It was quite fluffy, but fun to write. This chapter is about all of the Marauder's tricks on the school, or at least the best ones from each month of the year. All told from Sirius's point of view, very entertaining. It's mostly just for fun, but it's cute and short. Hope you like it.

Please review with favorite quotes from my story. Thanks everybody.

Ch. 7 Tricks

The Extremely Masculine Journal of the Wonderful Sirius Black 

_October 25th – _

Well I must say it was not my fault that I suffered from insomnia (got that word from Remus) last week, but a cat simply cannot understand a sensation (another Lupin word) like that and so that mangy rodent Mrs. Norris went and got Filch when I was stretching my legs walking around the school at midnight. What do they expect me to do, walk up and down the stairs of the dormitory? I'd wake everyone up. So anyway, I was whistling as I wandered the corridors and Filch shows up all disgruntled (LW). The stinking prat gave me detention! Anyways, me and James decided to lock Mrs. Norris up in the girls' bathroom with Moaning Myrtle. Well that didn't go over to well with the prat so now we have detention every night this week. Honestly! Mangy Cat!

November 13th 

The remarkably intelligent Mr. Black must complement himself on the discovery of the school kitchens. Me an' James were both suffering from insomnia on the same night a week ago so I suggested a stroll through the school. Sneaky Jamesie (ooo, he doesn't like it when I call him that) has an invisibility cloak and so we were able to go anywhere in the school. Being amazingly genius, I tickled a pear on a portrait and it opened up and their they were, house elves galore. I must say I like them much better then the nasty one we have at my house, Kreacher. Ahhh! McGonagall's looking my way. Better go. I'm a bit afraid of her

_November 19th _

Jamsie (who just threw a pillow at me) and me wanted to show our fellow Marauders the kitchens but unfortunately McGonagall happened to be in that general vicinity (yup, Lupin word) and now we have detention. God that woman's scary!

_December 18th _

Well, we are masterminds. Unfortunately it was dear James's brilliant mind that thought this one up. At our last dinner before vacation, we bewitched (mmm-hmmm, Remus's word) several bowls of mashed potatoes, and figgy pudding, and treacle tart to fly up into the air and then drop on to innocent, unsuspecting students. The students then started throwing food at the people they thought were responsible and then those people started tossing salad and bowls of soup until everyone in the hall was chucking food every which way. It was amazing until Lily Evans who is as smart as James gives her credit for figured out it was us and screamed at him with her hair dripping pumpkin juice. That sort of ruined the vibe. Thanks Lils.

_January 29th _

Boredom is the mother of invention, not necessity. Well, at least it's the mother of recklessness. It has been the most eventless January EVER (except for a screaming match between James and Lily in the Entrance Hall when James attempted to give Lily a birthday gift) so I thought I'd liven it up a bit by causing some well-meant disturbance to keep everybody on their toes. The snotty Head Boy Frederick Swizzle gave me and Peter detention when he caught us leaving the astronomy tower, having just covered the telescope lenses with ink. Ruined a perfectly good prank. Cranky old git, I'll get him back!

_February 14th _

Who doesn't love Valentine's Day? Apparently Lily Evans because she didn't respond very well to the decorations we added to the Common Room (actually to all the Common Rooms) and the banner that James made saying how amazing she is displayed in the Great Hall. Most sane girls would find it complementary (Remus's words, not mine), but Lily is not sane. She threw a plate of heart shaped pancakes at James and then stormed away from breakfast. It was pretty rough.

_March 11th _

I've done it, the ultimate revenge! Who's the man? Sirius is the man! Heck yes! That's what I thought bitches! Oh-yeah, oh-yeah! Sirius is rocking out in History of Magic. Oo-oo, oo-oo!

Sirius, what on earth are you doing? You're such a loser! I can't believe you have a diary.

Obviously I'm recording my accomplishments for posterity (Lupin word) in The Extremely Masculine Journal of the Wonderful Sirius Black, Jamesie!

**Never call me Jamesie again, and this _diary _is neither masculine, nor does it belong to anyone wonderful.**

It is masculine and I am quite wonderful, thank you very much! Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to record why I am such a top-notch fellow.

Whatever, Sirius. Enjoy the insane asylum.

Anyways, as I was saying before that rude interruption, I am god's gift to mankind! I am incredible! Frederick Swizzle, he went down!!!!! I used my extreme persuasion skills and the fellowship of trickstering to convince Peeves to follow that git around all day and blow raspberries whenever he talks. It's been a dream. I took that prat on. Go Sirius, go Sirius. Right, bell just rang, I'm cool. Peace out, holms.

_April 22nd _

Ahhh, the glory of springtime. I'm sitting out by the lake with my Marauder buddies enjoying the sunshine of the spring. And now for entertainment, I think I'll let James have this one. Snivellus himself is reading his DADA notes on a rather unsteady log by the lake and James is sneaking up behind him. Three… two… one…SPLASH! Ye-ah! Bitch is gone down! Way to go, Jamesie! Uh-oh, the devil herself has arrived. A certain Lily Evans has magiced poor Snivellus out of the lake before the giant squid could get him and James is in quite a bit of trouble. I'd best go attempt to help him ward of the beast before she murders him.

_May 27th_

Ahhh, study hall is the most obnoxiously boring thing. The sun is shining and the lake is beckoning. But I'm here in a classroom with my history of magic notes getting ready for exams. The only problem is that my notes are 100 "Sirius is awesome" and "Sirius is amazing". All things I knew before. Hmmmm. Idea! I'll need to discuss with James first, but it could be quite entertaining…

Later 

Detention, but it was worth it. James was, as I predicted, as bored as I was (his notes are about how amazing Lily Evans is. He should use his time more productively.) Anyways, I claimed I needed a book from the library and James said he needed to go to the bathroom then we hunted down Peeves (I'm starting to love this guy) and with the help of the Poltergeist we stormed the history of magic classroom and sabotaged everyone's studying with flying ink bottles and wastepaper baskets. Professor Binns (who I swear is still buggin' about the chalk incident. Some people just don't know how to let it go!) gave us detention. And dear Lillian (who slaps me whenever I call her that) screamed at poor, poor Jamesie again because of the scraps of paper caught in her hair and the smudges of ink all over her face. She _needs_ to sort out her priorities (Lupin word).

_June 1st_

tba

_June 9th _

Our last flying lesson of the year this morning was quite entertaining. James had this brilliant idea, and we pulled it off magnificently. Once everyone was on their brooms and up in the air, we charmed the broomsticks to fly in a sort of schincronized dance to the 1812 Overture, (Don't ask me, it's some muggle song Lupin came up with) even Madame Hooches's. To say the least it was immensly entertaining. It was great untill Lily Evans fell off her broom and was caught by the very cause of her fall, James. She sreamed so loud I swear I saw the Whomping Willow shudder. James is still hiding in our dorm from her right now, attempting to get rid of the handprint on his face.


	9. 8 He had No Idea What was Good for Him

Author's Note:

I really liked the last chapter. It was fun to write. I actually got the idea for Lupin words from a fiction I read (I can't remember what one) so whoever it is, thank you. I know I sort of blew off writing about almost the entire year but what do you really expect to happen? We all know that Lily and James can't get together until seventh year (OOTP) so at the moment it has to just be a crush.

This is a really short chapter, but it works to do what I need it to. I'm staffing a camp for the weekend, and I have a really busy week, so i can pretty much garuntee that I won't have time to write any more for at least a week. I'm really sorry, but if I get lots of reviews perhaps it will motivate me to skive off on sleep even more...

Ch. 8 He had No Idea What was Good for Him

Exams were fast approaching, and Lily couldn't get them off her mind. "They determine if we get into second year! They are so important," she reminded her friend who was gazing absently out the window.

Jordan sighed as she turned back towards the inpatient girl standing next to her. Lily's hair was frizzier then usual with the addition of unnecessary stress. "Lily," she stated calmly, "You do not need to worry!" Jordan stood and took a hold of the red-head's shoulders, "You'll do fine, I'll do fine, Ellyse will do fine, obviously Sam will do great. The exams aren't even important until fourth year really." Jordan didn't actually believe this; she was under the impression that nothing really mattered until OWLS, but she knew bringing those up would only worry Lily further.

"Not important! How could you say—"

"Lily!" Jordan stared her friend down. She would not be bullied into studying.

"Fine," Lily looked away, recognizing defeat. She had no idea that outside; by the lake a similar argument was taking place.

"Sirius, stop harassing Peter!" Lupin yelled at his friend who was threatening to shove Peter into the water, "You should study. Exams start tomorrow and you've spent a grand total of two minutes studying all week. These are really important."

"Whatever, Remus," Sirius carelessly replied after waiting a minute, "I'm not gonna kill myself when I know it all already."

"I'm not asking you to kill yourself," Remus argued, "James, you're studying. Tell Sirius how important this is."

"It doesn't really matter, mate," James looked up from his charms notebook in which he had been doodling Lily's name. "I just got sick of Remus's nagging."

Remus sighed and turned back to his herbology text. _He's hopeless_ he thought, looking up at Sirius who had resumed pantomiming himself shoving Peter into the lake.

The exams passed without any major mishaps. Peter accidentally transformed his mouse into a grandfather clock instead of a pocket watch without any idea how he accomplished it, and Ellyse's potion for curing fevers started emitting noises like a dying car engine and spewing out a thick, hazy greenish smoke.

By the end of exams none of the first years had enough energy left to do anything but flop on the grass outside the castle and relax, even the Marauders. It was in this lax atmosphere that the day of departure arrived.

"Lils, hurry up," Ellyse called up the stairs, "We have to get to the train."

"Just go with out me," Lily responded, still throwing items into her trunk, "I'll meet you there."

Lily heard a murmured conversation, but couldn't tell whom Ellyse was talking to. "Alright," Ellyse called, "Just hurry."

Lily started dragging her trunk down the stairs, cursing Lorenzo who had been in a skittish mood that morning and had taken off. "If I miss the train because of that cat I'm gonna kill it," Lily muttered to herself, but then she reached the bottom of the staircase and saw her cat and the person who had been talking to Ellyse.

"Potter," she glowered, "what are you doing."

James gave her his crooked grin, "I'm spending some quality time with your cat. He's pretty cool."

Lily stalked over to the couch, pulled her cat out of James's arms and muttered "Traitor!" as she shoved him ruthlessly into the wicker basket she used to carry him. "Have a good summer, Potter," Lily stated icily then turned towards the portrait hole.

"Wait," James stood up as Lily turned to face him, "Lily, I—I don't know what to say. I know you don't like me, that much is obvious, but, well…" James trailed off, unhelped by Lily's cool and unconcerned stare. "I offer a truce," he stated, finding the words he needed, "I want to become your friend, Lily Evans, and that's all I'm asking."

"I said, have a good summer, Potter," James should have been warned by the fury in Lily's voice.

"But Lily—"

"No, Potter! I do not want to be your friend, I do not want to make a truce, I do not want anything to do with you! You disgust me with your big-headedness and obnoxious pranks. You're rude, and arrogant, and mean, and I just can't stand you. If you know what's good for you, keep away from me!" Lily was flushed and breathing heavily as she brought the expression "if looks could kill" to life.

But James had no idea what was good for him. "Wanna go out with me, Lily?" he asked, absolutely spellbound (ironic, right?) by the passion and fury in her voice.

"NO!" Lily shrieked, sending Lorenzo into a frenzy inside his basket, "And NEVER call me Lily again!"

For about five minutes after Lily had slapped him and ran out of the Common Room, James stood mesmerized, staring at the portrait hole where he had last seen her. "I adore that girl. I'm going to marry her one day," James whispered to himself, then hurried to make it to the train.

Author's Note:

Well, first year's over. Hopefully you liked it. If not, why on earth are you still reading at the eighth chapter? Please review. I'll post again as soon as I can.


	10. Author's Note

Hey Everyone,

This isn't a real chapter either, sorry if I got your hopes up. I just want you to know that I am still working on this story, but I was at camp last weekend, and I've been sick, and I have a six page bio report due soon, and I officially have conjunctivitis as of today so I really can't see what I'm typing. As you can see I've been pretty busy, but I swear I'll post another chapter really soon!

Sorry Everybody,

Molly


	11. 9 Summer's End

Author's Note:

I'm back! I know that took ages to write, but I finally regained enough site in my eyes to at least see the computer screen (it was so gross!). Thanks for being so patient with me. Don't forget favorite quotes. And so they begin year two!

Ch. 9 - Summer's End

Lily waved goodbye to her family for the second time as she left for school. She knew she would miss them, but the summer had been brutal for her. Petunia had been obnoxiously rude all summer, muttering, "freak," whenever Lily entered a room and then quickly leaving it. She was driving Lily insane.

As soon as Lily walked through the barrier she was sandwiched between two happily squealing girls. "Excuse me," Lily looked scornfully at the grinning girls, both stunningly beautiful although opposites, "but I do believe you're standing on my foot." She held her disdainful look for a moment, and then burst out laughing at the blonde girl's shocked and hurt facial expression.

"I'm joking, Ellyse!" she exclaimed with laughing tears in her eyes. Jordan, the dark girl, was already laughing and Ellyse even cracked a smile once she had figured out what had happened.

"I hate it when you two trick me," Ellyse complained, but she was smiling too much to have any real impact on the girls.

"Have you seen Sam?" Lily asked once she could speak again.

"No, I haven't, have you, Ellyse?" Jordan answered, turning towards Ellyse.

"Ahhh, no, maybe she's, ummm, already on the train," Ellyse mumbled, not meeting Lily's eyes. Before Lily or Jordan cold comment on Ellyse's bad attempt at lying someone came up behind Lily and covered her eyes.

"Guess who?" Ellyse didn't seem happy with the new arrival and Jordan looked simply a bit amused, she didn't want to show any more emotion then she already had.

"Sam!" Lily yelled turning to hug her friend, "How are you doing?"

"Not too bad, and yourself?" Sam looked past Lily to the other two girls, turning the question to them as well.

"Good," Ellyse seemed to be remembering her last experience on the train with Sam.

"Great!" Lily answered with another grin.

"Fine," Jordan smiled at Lily and Ellyse's opposite reactions; her three friends were as different as they could be. "OH, hey, do you think you guys can stay at school for the winter break. My parents are traveling and I don't feel like going with them?"

"Yeah, deffinatly," Lily answered she was happy for a chance to avoid Petunia.

"I don't see why not," Jordan answered nuertally.

"Oooo, that sounds fun!" Ellyse put in, ignoring the fact that Sam didn't seem glad Ellyse wanted to stay as well.

"Come on, lets get a compartment before their all full," Jordan said as the bell rang out for the last passangers to get on board.

"Yes, lets," Lily quickly agreed, "I just bought a new pack of cards for exploding snap," and with that the girls disappeared onto the train.

James watched Lily and her friends get onto the train. He had no idea how he would get her to talk to him again but he knew he needed to. She was even more beautiful then he remembered and he wanted to just have a conversation with him. He sighed and stepped onto the train, waving to his parents as he entered the compartment that already housed his fellow marauders.

"Well hello there, Jamsie," Sirius grinned at his friend's appearance. "Did you miss me?"

"Oh yes," James replied with a grin of his own, "every day. How are you two?" James turned to Remus and Peter.

"Fine," Peter managed to squeak. He had always idolized James.

"Alright," Remus replied. James noticed bags under his friend's eyes and wondered how little sleep Remus must have gotten the night before.

James flopped onto the seat next to Sirius and grabbed a handful of chocolate frogs from his pocket, tossing them to his friends. "How's Lily?" Sirius asked, "I noticed you watching her and decided not to interrupt your trance."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sirius," James lied, "I haven't talked to her." His feeble attempt to appear unmoved by Lily's name didn't go unnoticed by his friends.

"Sure…" Sirius replied. "Well, while James is off in lady land, I have a prank to suggest." James snapped to attention as Sirius had known he would, "What I was thinking was…" And the plan began.

James stared out the window of his carriage as it sped off towards Hogwarts. He didn't envy the first years their trip across the lake in the freezing winds. He rather liked the Hogwarts carriages, even if they didn't have horses pulling them. Sirius, James, Peter and Remus jumped out of their carriage as soon as they arrived. They wanted seats close to the front of the Great Hall so they could watch the sorting up close.

A half hour later when all the first years were sorted and dinner was served James had a brilliant idea. He had thought of the missing key to the Marauder's mischief, how to get away with it. After sharing the idea with his friends, James decided to try and talk with Lily who was telling a first year boy about potions class. He was feeling extremely proud of his idea and felt like Lily would too. It never even occurred to him that not only did she not know of his plan, but if she did know she wouldn't be too happy.

"Miss me, Evans?" James whispered quietly into Lily's ear. "Sootch over," he commanded the first year next to Lily and sat down giving Lily his lopsided grin that always made her blush furiously.

"Not remotely," Lily responded while serving herself from the treacle tart that had just appeared on the gold platter in front of her. "What prank do you have planned to torture the new first years with now?"

"Now, now, Lillian," Lily flinched at the name change, "is that fair? I haven't done anything but watch the sorting."

"Yet," Lily countered busying herself with her food so that she wouldn't have to look at the boy next to her. Finally she twisted in her seat to look in his eyes and was surprised by what she thought was a glimmer of hurt in his eyes but whatever the emotion was it disappeared too quickly for Lily to be sure she saw anything at all. "What do you want, Potter?" Lily didn't want to play James's word games anymore.

"Nothing but the pleasure of your company, my flower" James hadn't wanted her to know how sad he was that she wouldn't give him a chance. Unfortunately "my flower" wasn't Lily's favorite term of endearment because she stood up and started to walk away. "Where are you going?" James stood and watched Lily walk away from him but she didn't answer his question. James sat back down with a sigh, "I have a lot of work to do," he muttered to himself. James just sat there and stared after Lily for the last five minutes of dinner as the rest of the school finished their dinner and left for the dormitories.

Author's Note:

Well there you go, it took me a while but I finally got that one up. Please review with favorite quotes and any prank ideas; I can use them. I'll update soon.


	12. 10 Halloween part 1

Author's Note:

I'm going to attempt to not take so long with these chapters (sorry about the two week wait on almost all of them lately) but I went away last weekend which is when I get most of my writing done, so now I have a question. Would you rather I wrote a bunch of chapters in advance and just saved them as documents so that I could put a chapter up every week or just post my chapters as soon as I write them? Just review and tell me what you think.

Oh yeah, Happy Easter in advance!

Ch. 10. Halloween Part 1

"Lily, hurry up already," Jordan called up the stairs to her friend. In a fit of stressed nerves over a transfiguration spell Lily couldn't seem to perform properly the stubborn red head had decided to stay up till she did it. Unfortunately Lily was never able to correctly perform her spell and eventually she fell asleep in her robes at about four. Now she was particularly grumpy and tired. "Let's GO! —" Jordan was cut off by a look from Lily who had just appeared off the stairs.

"Okay, let's go," Lily grumbled, staring down two first years in her way to the portrait hole. "I'm fine," she responded when Jordan gave her a sympathetic look.

Jordan chose not to comment on the bags under Lily's eyes or the particular friziness of her hair. She had no intention of having her head ripped off.

In the hallways Sam caught up with them, "What happened to y —" she started but Jordan cut her off with a sharp shake of her head.

"She stayed up until about four working at transfiguration. You know how she gets…" Jordan trailed off, leaving it to Sam to realize how bad it was.

"Oh, well, that's rough," Sam smirked inwardly to herself that the tables were starting to turn a bit in her favor with her academic rivalry with Lily. She was still concerned for her friend though. "Just don't kill yourself, Lils. I think I'll catch up with you two later," Sam backed away cautiously, clearly afraid of Lily's wrath.

Jordan sighed to herself as they entered the Great Hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table. Lily needed to relax. She had been past breaking point all term trying to be the best at everything.

"Excuse me," Professor MaGonogall called, "the Headmaster has an announcement.

Dumbledore stood and beamed at his students, "I am pleased to give you all this rather important announcement which I'm sure you will all be equally pleased to hear." At this several students laughed sarcastically but the majority looked up expectantly. "In celebration of Halloween this month, we will be allowing all students to spend the night in a different house of their choice. The portraits have been ordered to open for any student who uses the password, "Dungbomb". This is to encourage inter-house relationships and I fully expect proper behavior." Dumbledoor sat back down amid excited titterings of the students.

"Ooo," Lily squealed, breaking out of her depressed reverie, "We can go stay in Ravenclaw with Sam!"

"I know, I can't wait," Jordan jumped up, happy to see Lily smiling again, "I'm going to go tell Ellyse." Lily watched Jordan walk away thinking contentedly. She was lucky to have her friends. Jordan was the most steady and levelheaded person Lily had ever met. There was something about her though, Lily couldn't figure it out, she had never seen Jordan cry, or even become passionately upset, but she could tell there was something Jordan wasn't telling her friends, about herself, or her family. And then there's Ellyse. She always threw herself 100 percent into anything that popped into her head. She was chosen for the Gryffindor Quiddich team as a chaser and she was an amazing flyer. You couldn't be depressed when Ellyse was around.

"How's it going, Evans?"

Lily sighed as the one person she didn't want to see when she was completely sleep deprived sat down across from her. "Much better until you showed up, Potter."

"Ooo, nasty today. Me thinks Lily didn't sleep too well last night." Lily sighed and shot down her last swig of orange juice. "What are you doing for Halloween?" James was trying to be friendly but Lily clearly wasn't in the mood for being teased.

"Not that's it's any of your business, Potter, but I'm going to be in Ravenclaw." Lily stood and swept away.

"See you there," James whispered to her retreating back. Standing he called to his friend, "Oy, Sirius, we're going to Ravenclaw for Halloween."

o0o

After what had been the longest week in any Hogwarts student's memory Halloween finally arrived. The holiday feast was incredible as usual with floating jack-o-lanterns and live bats fluttering about the hall.

The blue décor-ed Ravenclaw Common Room was packed with students. In a circle in front the fireplace Sam, Jordan, a Ravenclaw named Margaret Prichard with curly beach blonde, and several other girls sat with in a group trading cosmetics spells. Next to the door Sirius and Ellyse devised plans to sabotage Slughorn's potions class (they were partners and always managed to completely ruin their potion) with Remus attempting to dissuade them and Peter laughing at all the wrong moments.

Lily was sitting on the squashy couch in the middle of the room with one Ravenclaw and one Hufflepuff boy. The Ravenclaw, Michael Doney, was exceptionally tall with grayish blue eyes and dusty brown messy hair. Lily thought he was a bit pompous but altogether quite friendly. Richard Oliver, the Hufflepuff, had dirty blonde hair and deep chocolate eyes. He was friends with everyone and smiled all the time. They were discussing charms class.

The room was so full of laughter and conversation that Lily didn't notice as her least favorite person entered the room. Nor did she feel his jealous gaze on her and the two boys she was sitting with. James took two steps forward then stopped and reconsidered. He and Sirius had been planning a brilliant trick for that night (the one they had begun devising on the train) and Lily would be waiting for him to do something if he let her know he was there. Not to mention the only way he could get a chance to talk to her was if he got her away from those two gits.

James stood in the shadows and watched her for a moment then nodded to Sirius and they left for the hallways.

"I thought we were going to wait until there were more people around for a better impact. Why move up the time table?" Sirius asked once they were safely away from the Common Room.

"Well, I want to do it now," James answered trying to hide the envy eating at his insides.

"Ahhhh," Sirius nodded knowingly, "you always let the girl do the liking, James! Haven't I told you that before? You're looking exceptionally green tonight."

"Whatever, let's just do it," James countered, blushing a brilliant shade of magenta.

A devious grin spread over Sirius's face, such that only a prank could from. "Yes, let's!"

A/N: Ahhh, a cliff-hanger. I know, you hate me. I'll update asap but I have two papers due before Easter so you may need to wait a week.


	13. 10 Halloween part 2

Author's Note:

I'm so proud of myself on this one. I have to say, I really like it even if it's a bit short. All the Halloween stuff was too much to put in one chapter and I wanted to post what I had written so far.

Next chapter: favorite quotes. Please give me some good ones or else I'll have to find some of my favorites, which isn't quite as fun.

Ch. 10 Halloween pt. 2

Twenty minutes later James reentered the Ravenclaw Common Room and sat down in the corner behind Lily to watch the scene that would unfold. He only had to wait two minutes until Sirius entered with a gleeful grin on his face and a huge, moving, squeaking sack in his hand.

"What are you up to, Sirius?" called Jordan from the far side of the room.

"Nothing less then amazing," Sirius answered pleased with everyone's confused looks at his words (the first ones that had popped into his head) and their cautious looks at the squirming bag he was holding.

Then, at just the right moment complete pandemonium broke loose. From his sack, Sirius released 31 live bats he and James had captured from the Great Hall. After being tied up in a giant burlap sack for the past five minutes the bats were frantic to escape. They soared all over the room, landing in people's hair and on the curtains, squeaking to each other and searching for insects to eat. It was utter chaos. The girls shrieked and dove under armchairs and covered their heads. A few of the braver students, including Ellyse, stood on chairs and tried to tempt the bats into landing on their arms. The rest, including Lily, having gotten over their original shock just laughed.

James crept up next to Lily and watched her laugh. He loved her smile and wished she would smile at him occasionally. "Do you like it?" he asked, praying she wouldn't recognize his voice.

"It's witty," James's prayers were answered. He noticed Michael and Richard were nowhere nearby. "I'll give you that, it's witty." Lily continued laughing as she watched Ellyse try to catch a specific bat yelling that she would name it Ripkins and take good care of it.

"I'm glad you like them, freshly captured by yours truly," James couldn't believe he was having a civil, no, even better, a friendly conversation with Lily Evans. He took a deep breath and silently prayed again, "Will you go out with me?"

Lily was cut off mid giggle and then she stiffened, her eyes no longer really watching the bats soaring out the open window. She turned and looked at James as though he was her worst nightmare then her eyes changed abruptly from fear to fury and she slapped him then stormed up the staircase to the girl's dormitory.

James watched her go with a regretful gaze. Sirius walked up behind him and clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, at least now she's willing to touch you!" he laughed and turned his friend around.

Sighing to himself, James faced the crowd that had come forward to congratulate he and Sirius on their prank. Putting on a comical smile he bowed gallantly and pretended he was completely happy.

Little did James know that he was being watched by a pair of brilliant emerald tear filled eyes at the top of the girls' staircase. Lily watched him intently as he laughed and joked around and came to the conclusion that he didn't really care about her; she was just a girl who he enjoyed chasing. Stifling a sob, Lily stood and walked into the dormitory.


	14. 11 A Dizzying Detention

Author's Note:

Hey everyone, guess what? It's time for favorite quotes, and here they are:

**Ch. 6 -** "She's the most amazing girl in the world, Sirius," James ran into the boy's dormitory at midnight. "She's so deep, and intelligent, and pretty, and amazing…" James trailed off and looked at his best friend who clearly hadn't listened to a word he had just said. "Sirius! I'm talking to you!" James yelled in his friend's face.

"They pretend to be such good, nice people but they're sneaky and evil and conniving."

**Ch. 7 - **Who's the man? Sirius is the man! Heck yes! That's what I thought bitches! Oh-yeah, oh-yeah! Sirius is rocking out in History of Magic. Oo-oo, oo-oo!

**Ch. 8 - **"I'm not asking you to kill yourself," Remus argued, "James, you're studying. Tell Sirius how important this is." "It doesn't really matter, mate," James looked up from his charms notebook in which he had been doodling Lily's name. "I just got sick of Remus's nagging."

But James had no idea what was good for him. "Wanna go out with me, Lily?" he asked, absolutely spellbound (ironic, right?) by the passion and fury in her voice.

I'm going to marry her one-day.

**Ch. 9 -** "Nothing but the pleasure of your company, my flower"

**Ch. 10 - **Sirius and Ellyse devised plans to sabotage Slughorn's potions class (they were partners and always managed to completely ruin their potion) with Remus attempting to dissuade them and Peter laughing at all the wrong moments.

"What are you up to, Sirius?" called Jordan from the far side of the room. "Nothing less then amazing," Sirius answered pleased with everyone's confused looks at his words (the first ones that had popped into his head) and their cautious looks at the squirming bag he was holding.

Lily continued laughing as she watched Ellyse try to catch a specific bat yelling that she would name it Ripkins and take good care of it. 

Ch. 11- A Dizzying Detention

James waited a week to ask Lily out again (approximately the amount of time it took for the handprint to wear off. He was, however much more wary of Lily's reactions to his extravagant pranks. After one particularly loud screaming match in the Entrance Hall (James was actually singing) they were both placed in detention together once again in late December, much to Lily's displeasure.

James was early for his detention, and sat on the desk waiting for Lily to arrive. He didn't plan to waste an entire night of time spent with Lily. He was a strong believer in persistence. "Hello there, my flower," he smiled cheerily as Lily walked in.

"I am not 'your flower'," Lily's eyes flashed warningly.

"Very well, my gem," James answered, determined not to be put off.

"I am NOT—"

"Miss Evans, not yelling again I presume?" Professor McGonagall questioned curtly. Lily started to protest but simply shook her head when the professor raised a cynical eyebrow at her. "You two have the entire trophy room to polish up so I suggest you get to it," the professor continued, "I will return in four hours, no magic." With that the Professor McGonagall turned on her heal and swished away with a flip of her emrald robes.

"Wanna go out with me?" James asked as they stared after the teacher.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

James waited a few seconds as Lily started on a trophy for some old head boy, "Marry me?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"No!"

"Would you, could you on a train? Would you, could you in the rain?"

"NO!" Inwardly Lily chuckled to herself at the reference to the children's Dr. Seuss books.

"What, don't you like Green Eggs and Ham?" James asked, undeterred.

"I do not like them Sam I Am." Lily answered, not realizing she was enjoying herself.

"Go out with me?" James asked hopefully.

"If I say yes will you never ask me again?" Lily asked.

"Yup."

Lily thought about it for a moment, "No."

"Marry me?"

"NO!" Lily was starting to get truly frustrated, then she got an idea. "Didn't you say that we would need to get in trouble together again so that I could ask you questions?"

"Why yes I did, what would you like to know, my dear Lilikins?" James was slightly let down that he couldn't ask any questions including proposals. "Marry me."

"Hey, you can't ask questions!"

"It was a demand."

Lily sighed, "No demands either."

"Fine, anyways, what would you like to know."

"Nothing really, I just wanted you to stop asking me out." Lily sighed and thought of anything she could ask before James started asking her out again. "Why do you claim to like me so much?"

"I don't. I love you," James replied calmly.

Lily glared at him, "Fine, why do you claim to love me so much?"

"'Cause I do."

The conversation wasn't proving particularly fruitful. "Why do you love me?"

That was a question James was more then happy to answer, "Because you're beautiful and deep, and you like Christmas, and you're smart, and nice, and cold at the same time, and you like Thursdays, and winter, and amaryllis, and nighttime, and deer, and red like your amazing hair, and you're intelligent and pretty and sweet and funny and smart and you have amazingly green eyes and you're amazing and beautiful and everything."

James didn't realize Lily was staring at him with a shocked look on her face, "Oh," she trailed off, "Good answer. How did you remember all that?"

"That? Oh, that's nothing to what Sirius has to listen to me say every night. If you want the long version—"

"No, that's okay," Lily answered, still a bit disillusioned off her typical view of James, "I think I'm going to faint." Lily staggered slightly but James caught her before she came close to falling. "I think I may be allergic to the polish," Lily lied but James seemed to swallow it.

James slowly lowered her to the ground but didn't release her even as she started to regain her stability. "Are you all right? Should I go find Professor McGonagall? Do you need—"

"No," Lily interrupted, "no, I'm fine, just get back to work, I'll help you as soon as I'm not so dizzy."

"Not a chance," James answered. "I'll finish, you just relax."

Lily sighed with relief almost inaudibly when he let her go. It was nerve racking to have him hold her up and gaze with so much concern so clearly written on his features. She could get lost in his deep hazel eyes.

"Three hours later Professor McGonagall returned to a sparkling Trophy Room and a rather pale (or at least more so then usual) Lily Evans sitting against the wall. "Very well, you may go," she said looking curiously at the nervous student. Lily practically ran back to the Gryffindor Common Room, grateful that James would be leaving the next day for Christmas break.

"Goodnight, Lily," James called as she disappeared up the stairs. He didn't know what to make of her. She was so difficult to understand sometimes.

"Night," Lily answered then she slammed the door to her dormitory.

"Girls," James shook his head then trudged up the stairs to his room.

A/N: Yeah, that one was quite fluffy but I had fun with it. I hope you think it's as cute as I do. In the mean time, quotes! I need some favorite quotes for this chapter and the coming ones. Please, please, please review too. I'm on vacation now so I should get a lot of writing done quick. Check out my new one-shot Then the Rains Came. It's not a Harry Potter fic, but actually an English paper I wrote. Please read it, I'm grateful for any feedback you can give me. I just got a really good idea for a new fic so I'll be working on that during my free time too. Love you all for reading!


	15. 12 To Seduce the UnSeducable

Author's Note:

SO, how many of you have been reading my new story? Yeah, everyone had best be raising their hand. If you haven't yet, please, please, check out Taking Care of Business. I just started it and I really could use all of your feedback. Reviews and favorite quotes please! I know you can do it!

Ch. 12 To Seduce the Un-seducible

"YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" James screamed at the top of his lungs as Lily stormed out of the Gryffindor Common Room. She had been planning on trying to be friends with him but the second James walked back into the Common Room from Christmas Break he had begun to profess his eternal love to her. Now she wanted nothing more then to sink into the very ground and disappear.

"Now, that's no way to go about it," Ellyse commented behind James.

He spun around, "What do you mean?"

"How on earth do you plan to convince her to date you if you humiliate her beyond belief?" Ellyse asked raising her perfectly arched eyebrows, "We need a better plan. Get your Marauders; I'll get Jordan and Sam. Common Room, one, tonight." Ellyse turned with a swish of her hair and marched out after Lily.

1:01 am, Gryffindor Common Room

"Shhhh, Ellyse stop laughing," Jordan whispered harshly. "If you wake anyone up I'll kill you, chop you up into little pieces and feed you to the Giant Squid!"

"I'm sorry," giggle, "but I just," giggle, "keep imagining," full out laughter, "Lily's face," giggle, "when she finds out," giggle, "what we're doing," Ellyse finished and collapsed against Jordan in laughter.

"Oh god," Sam shook her head mock seriously, "she's a mess."

"I am not—"

"Well hello ladies," Sirius walked down the staircase with his hands in his pockets, grinning like an idiot, James, Remus, and Peter behind him.

"Finally," Ellyse regained her composure, "James, you are the absolute worst with girls."

"Hey, I take offense to that, I'm just bad with the Lilies!" James answered pretending to be hurt.

Sam rolled her eyes, "Oh please," she drawled, "We need a solid plan. We all agree that Lily needs to stop loathing James, right?"

The whole group chorused, "Right."

"Okay then, I had an idea," Sam started, "It's not much, but Ellyse could talk about Quiddich around Lily a lot, get her to go to the games, and talk about how great a player he is."

"That's good." Ellyse turned to the boys, "James, You need to lighten it up a bit. There's no reason for Lily to like you if you throw yourself at her. Take is easy, killa'. Can't you see embarrassment is no way to a girl's heart? She won't like you if she can have you at any time."

"All right," James nodded his head in what he thought was a cool fashion, "I need to play it cool, smooth."

"Sure…" Ellyse just stared at him for a second as Peter giggled in the background. "Any one else have any ideas?"

"I do," Remus volunteered. "How about we leave I to Lily to come around in her own good time?"

"Yeah, like that'll work, Loopy," Sirius rolled his eyes. "I say one of you girls pretend to be in love with James."

"WHAT?!" Sam as good as yelled.

"Shhhh!"

"Are you insane?"

"It could work—"

"Why the hell would we want to do that?"

"That's crazy, Sirius," Remus couldn't stand his friends' stupidity sometimes.

"Yeah crazy," Ellyse agreed, "So crazy it just might work."

Meanwhile on the staircase, "Soooo, that's why Ellyse seemed so skittish tonight. She's setting me up," Lily whispered to herself, barely suppressing a giggle as she crept back into her four-poster bed and closed the curtains. "I'll show them."

o0o

"Lily, come on! Come to my quiddich game," Ellyse pleading, crossing her fingers behind her back.

"Sure," Lily answered, "I'll be down right after you. I'm just waiting for Jordan to finish her makeup. I think she fancies someone on your team," Lily was seriously considering renouncing magic and taking up a career in acting.

"Ooooo, you think?" Ellyse's plan was working out so well. "Okay, I'll see you after the match."

"Bye," Lily called, grinning to herself.

Thus the week continued.

"Hey Lily," Jordan would whisper in potions, "James has been staring at you all class. You're so lucky."

"James made this great play at practice today, Lily" Ellyse gushed as they gave themselves pedicures, "You should have seen it."

"Lily, can I tell you a secret?" Jordan asked one afternoon as they walked up to the owlry, "I have a crush on James!"

A month passed and still Lily had the same neutral remarks at every attempt her friends made. Finally Ellyse wrote James a note:

Desperate times call for desperate measures, emergency meeting in the Common Room tonight, at one.

"Lily is far too strong. Jordan, James, you are now dating," Ellyse announced. "We must do what must be done."

**March 27th – The Extremely Masculine Journal of the Wonderful Sirius Black**

Operation L/J has commenced (Remus word). I know, why Black, why? It was brilliant; it was amazing! Well, somehow Lily out sneaked the master sneakers and she knew about our plan the whole time. Well one day in the Common Room she "bumped" into Jordan who fell on top of James and well she kissed him accidentally and he jumped up and yelled that he loved Lily. Jordan just stared at him since he ruined all our brilliant planning and Lily collapsed onto the armchair and laughed hysterically for half an hour. So much for that plan. Not to worry, we'll get her (as if James would let me…) Until later then, I'm going to raid the kitchens, Black.

A/N: That chapter had virtually no purpose but it was fun to write. I want to add a special shout out to Trocle, Quiddichstar2291, and hpobsessed12 who have this story listed as a favorite. Also to Alice Waters, cocokabana, goblet-of-fire-gal, loonylunalovegood07, moonlight star phoenix, Quiddichstar2291 (again), satannpink, opungo, rogan-trory-sethsummer-lover, tm7, and whitewolfhockey42192 for putting this onto story alert, and all my faithful reviewers, especially emuroo and pottergeek020. I love you all, it's truly appreciated.


	16. 13 Almost Forgiveness and Mudblood Love

Author's Note:

I know, I am a big gerk and I haven't updated this story in a while. I've been working on Taking Care of Business and I was having serious writers block on this one. Anyways, I'm finally updating.

A shout out to -MaRaUdErLoVeR423- who added this story to her story alert list and to poshini, emuroo, and -MaRaUdErLoVeR423- (again) for adding this to their favorites. Well, well, where are we, so operation LJ #1 has failed. Don't worry; there will be several other operations LJ for you to watch out for, one in particular for seventh year that I can't wait to write. Speaking of which, this story is halfway done (applause). How it All Began is only the first three years of James's attempted relationship with Lily. I'll have two sequels after this, which will take us quite a while. We've got quite a Rolla coaster ride ahead of us. I was thinking of Middle Ground as the title for my next one, what do you guys think?

Now this was originally two chapters but I condensed. It's a little fluffy, but not much. Don't forget to give me all your favorite quotes! And now the long awaited:

Ch. 13 Almost Forgiveness and a Mudblood Love

"I want two rolls of parchment on the importance of proper pronunciation of spell for Monday, everyone," Professor Flitwick dismissed his class with a wave of his hand and stepped down from the stack of books he had been standing on, ignoring the groans of protest from his students.

"Lily," James called as she packed her bags. "Lily, wait!"

"Leave me ALONE, Potter," Lily grumbled. In her haste she spilled a bottle of parchment over her notebook and had to whip out her wand to clean it up. She hadn't spoken to James in two weeks since Operation LJ #1 and still snapped at everyone who mentioned James in a slightly favorable light. After realizing that the operation had failed James had acted on impulse to try and win Lily over. Needless to say, she was less then pleased with his tap dance.

"Look, I'm not going to harass you," James followed Lily out of the classroom toward the Great Hall for lunch, "I just want to borrow your charms notes."

"Didn't you take any yourself?" people who copied off their friends were a pet peeve of Lily's, not that she considered James a friend.

"I'm afraid not, my quill broke," James held up the broken quill, "and Remus didn't have any extras today of all days."

"No— fine," Lily consented, just to get rid of the annoyingly persistent boy at her side, "Now leave me ALONE!"

James watched Lily walk a few paces, holding the notes loosely in his hand. "I won't give up, you know," he murmured quietly, but just loud enough for Lily to hear, "Not now, not ever."

Lily turned to look at him, meeting his eyes for the first time in months, "I know," she stated simply, then walked away. She didn't know how or why, but Lily knew that James wasn't lying when he told her he wouldn't give up. It was one of those given facts, the sky is blue, the sun is warm; it would always be true.

Two months passed quickly at Hogwarts. Ellyse and Sirius managed to scrape an A on their potions exam but followed through on their plans to sabotage the class anyways, switching the ingredients' labels with disastrous results. The Marauders discover a nifty spell that they put to use at the end of a DADA class. Just as everyone was getting up to leave the entire room flip-flopped and right side up was down. Lily screamed at James for a full five minutes and slapped him right across the face for asking her out again (especially upside down).

On their last day of school, all the students went outside to enjoy the warm weather. James and Sirius were on their way to play a last round of Quiddich before they went home. "I can't understand why she hates me so much," James stated as he and Sirius walked past the dungeons, "All I've ever done is flatter her by asking her out all the time."

"You're right, mate," Sirius agreed, "that girl is a basket case."

"No she's not! She amazing!" James countered.

"Drooling over your precious Mudblood, Potter?" a sly voice questioned from behind them.

"You did NOT just say that, Snivellus," Sirius remarked coolly.

"I think I did," Severus Snape answered with a slight smirk.

James was shaking in fury, his wand emitting red sparks. He raised it threateningly, "Take it back, take it back you disgusting scum!" James yelled. When Severus just stared at him, James threw the first hex he thought of and Severus started doing a crazy tap dance. A crowd had gathered, all of who were laughing at the struggling Slytherin who had dropped his wand.

"What's going on here?" cried a crisp voice James knew better then any other. He didn't notice the spell wearing off Severus.

"Levicorpus!" he called, sending James into the air, suspended by his ankle.

"Impedimenta," Sirius yelled, knocking Severus to the ground just as Lily made her way through the crowd.

"Expelliarmus!" she yelled, pointing her wand at Sirius. Snape and James were already deprived of their wands. "Let him down," she ordered Severus. He obeyed reluctantly and James crashed painfully to the ground. Lily turned and walked away, not even looking at the hump that had fallen only a few feet in front of her.

"Lily! Lily!" James jumped to his feet and chased after her, leaving his wand lying uselessly on the ground. "He called you, he called you a, a, well, a you-know-what!" James yelled as he climbed the stairs two at a time.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT HE CALLED ME," Lily spun around and marched back towards James until they were face to face. "HE'S STILL A PERSON, HE DOSEN'T DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE THAT! YOU DISGUST ME JAMES POTTER! YOU DRIVE ME INSANE! YOU ARE THE LAST BOY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD I COULD EVER BE PREVAILED UPON TO BEFRIEND LET ALONE DATE! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Lily shrieked then ran the rest of the way to the Gryffindor dorm.

On the train ride home Sirius returned James his wand. James thanked him but didn't talk very much. He smiled ruefully to himself, recollecting Lily's fury. It was enthralling, watching her truly scream. It was the closest to passion he ever saw her. "Next year," James muttered optimistically, "next year."

A/N: Now I have a really important question. When do the Marauders figure out Remus is a werewolf? I know they become animagi in fifth year, but when do they actually figure it out? When does Sirius move in with James? Also, when do they make the Marauder's Map? I have guesses, but I want to be absolutely sure. I can't seem to find my copy of POA or else I'd look up all this stuff myself. Please let me know. Love you guys.


	17. 14 Third Years The Charm

Author's Note:

Oh no. I've been so bad lately about updating. I'm really sorry for neglecting you all for so long, but I'm back! Just so you know, I've given up on favorite quotes. You're more then welcome to tell me if you have any, but I barely have enough time to write the actual chapter let alone copy and paste quotes into chapters.

So finally, they start third year with new plans to make this year the best yet.

Ch. 14 Third Year's the Charm

James leaned against the wall of the train station, watching the students' board the train. He was waiting particularly for a few people. One was Lily Evans, the girl he had been hopelessly in love with since he first saw her. He just wanted to see her once to make sure that she was there. James also wanted to look out for Bellatrix Black, a Slytherin who had taken a disliking to him the moment they met. The last person he was waiting for was Sirius Black, Bellatrix's cousin and James's other half.

"Hi James," James looked up and nodded at a group of second year girls walking by. They giggled and whispered congratulations to the brave soul who had been courageous enough to talk to him. That gave him an idea, a marvelous idea. James grinned to himself proudly and started searching the crowd with more vigor.

After a few minutes James spied Lily with her two good friends Ellyse Mellow and Jordan Gray. Ellyse laughed as he was watching and shook her gleaming blonde hair that reached down to her butt. She often acted rather stupid as her hair would imply (A/N: I am blonde, I don't have anything against them), but she really wasn't an idiot, just a bit scatterbrained. She was also one of the funniest and most spontaneous girl in Hogwarts and James's fellow chaser on the Gryffindor Quiddich team. Jordan was beautiful in a darker way. She always thought before speaking but she wasn't exactly quiet either. She was the school heartthrob not to mention a heart breaker. There wasn't a guy in school she couldn't get. James had pretended to date her the year before; he chuckled to his self as the memory. Lily had discovered their plan to make her jealous so that she would finally agree to date him and had played along until she "accidentally" bumped into Jordan who fell on to James kissing him. He had the jumped up and claimed that he was in love with Lily and he couldn't kiss her. Needless to say the plan failed and Lily laughed non-stop for the following half hour.

"Miss me?" James grinned and turned to face Sirius, giving him a 'man hug'.

"Every moment," James replied, raising one eyebrow. Then lowering his voice he added, "How's it going with your mum?" Sirius was from the Ancient and Noble House of Black, a pure blood wizarding family with a strong belief in the dark arts. They were less then pleased when Sirius was put in Gryffindor rather then Slytherin.

"Oh swell," Sirius rolled him eyes sarcastically, "The old bat kicked me out after I refused to sign a marriage contract with some other equally evil pureblood family."

"She what?" James yelled, "Where'd you go?"

"Later," Sirius mumbled through the corner of his mouth as he nodded his head to a few passing Hufflepuff girls who burst into giggles at the sight of him which reminded James of his plan.

"Come on," he urged with one last glance towards Lily and her friends. "Let's get a compartment. I have a plan I want to tell you." Sirius nodded and they heaved their trunks onto the train.

o0o

Lily Evans stretched her arms out one more time in the sunlight on the platform before boarding the train. Her summer had been horrid once again. Petunia still hated Lily, but she was now bragging about going to Eton, where Lily would have gone had she never received a Hogwarts letter. Petunia took it upon herself to inform everyone they met taht her sister wasn't at Eton but some other foreign boarding school.

Lily smiled to herself because finally she was going back to Hogwarts, the one place where she truly belonged. She yanked her trunk down the hallway and sighed with relief when she reached her half full compartment. Inside were her three closest friends, Ellyse Mellow, Jordan Gray, and Samantha Lorne. Lily smiled at her friends and joined them in the compartment.

"Why, hello again," Lily feigned surprise, "I haven't seen you lot in ages."

Sam smiled back, "Try a few minutes. How was your summer?"

"Oh don't even ask," Lily shook her heard.

Jordan swept her shiny black hair behind a shoulder and wrinkled her nose, "Was it that bad?"

Lily sighed, "Petunia."

"Oh," all three answered simultaneously with the same knowing look then laughed at their synchronized exclamations.

"Hey Lily," said a voice from the hall, "Hey Sam, Jordan, Ellyse." The girls turned to see three new comers standing hesitantly in the doorway.

"Hey guys," Sam answered with a friendly smile, "Come on in; sit down." Two Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff sat down with apparent relief. The Hufflepuff was Richard Oliver, a nice guy with a sweet smile, dirty blonde longish hair (A/N: What I would call a perfect all around American guy, and you too if you live in the US.). He played keeper on the Hufflepuff Quiddich team. The Ravenclaw girl was Margaret Prichard, a sweetheart blonde with a heart shaped face and pale blue eyes. The other Ravenclaw was Michael Doney, a tall lanky, studious guy with gray eyes and a lopsided smile. He could be a bit full of himself but Lily liked him nonetheless.

"How was everyone's summer?" asked Margaret, tucking a lock of her hair behind an ear.

A chorus of 'goods' and 'not bads' echoed through the room.

"Terrible," Lily stated honestly. "Petunia—my sister—was being a brat, as usual," she explained.

"Ahh, my sister Gina is a nightmare," Richard nodded knowingly, "I don't know how I live with her."

Lily smiled in agreement and changed the topic, "Who else is excited for Hogsmeade this year?"

With the sudden rush of excited chatter Lily was able to sit back and observe her friends. Jordan was even prettier, but she looked tired, as though she had had a rough time over vacation. Lily couldn't understand why since the Grays had gone to Manhattan, New York in America and Jordan must have had the time of her life going to shows and shopping. Ellyse had grown her hair out even longer (Lily suspected with the help of magic). _By seventh year it will be down to the ground,_ Lily thought to herself. Sam was a lot less timid, joining the conversation and talking much more.

"What are you going to do about Potter?" Lily snapped back into the conversation when Richard addressed her. Apparently they had moved on from Hogsmeade and somehow James Potter had come up.

"Well actually, I had an idea," Lily started; noticing that Jordan and Ellyse were whispering together and Sam was gazing determinedly out the window. "I thought that if I let him down nicely he'll lose his determination.

"What do you mean?" Michael leaned forward and looked at her intently.

Lily was surprised at his curiosity. "Well, if I just say no to him instead of yelling it won't start a fight and it won't draw attention to him and he'll give up. All he really cares about is the attention anyways."

"That's a great idea, Lily," Margaret encouraged.

"It's not going to work," sang Ellyse from the corner. "You know he's not going to give up _that_ easily," she continued normally.

The unfortunate thing was that Lily agreed entirely, not that she said that or anything, "You never know," she shrugged her shoulders, "Third year's the charm." Ellyse rolled her eyes.

o0o

A few compartments down, the very subject of Lily's discussion was explaining his so called 'brilliant' plan to his three good friends and fellow marauders. "I'm going to make her beg to go on a date with me?"

"Uh-huh" Sirius was only partly paying attention, used to hearing James rant on all the different plans he had come up with to finally win over Lily Evans, "How do you propose to woo the fair lady?" he mocked.

"I'm serious, Sirius," James winced at the name pun, "I really think I can get her now."

"Oh, I'm sure you will, James," Peter chimed in encouragingly but no one really noticed.

"How?" Remus was the only person who took James's attempts seriously (no pun intended), mostly because he was the only one who cared if it hurt Lily in some way.

"Well," James said, putting his hands behind his head, "I am going to get myself the most ridiculous rep in the school so that every girl will want to date me."

"Hey," Sirius pretended to be offended, "Are you trying to steal my position."

James smiled, "No, you can still be the guy every girl in the school wants to be in a broom closet with." They all laughed at that but Remus was still worried.

"James," he frowned, "That's idiotic. I don't think that Lily will appreciate your reputation very much, in fact it will make her want to date you even less."

"Not possible, Lupin," Sirius cracked up laughing at the look James gave him. Remus rubbed his temples and shook his head. "Are you all right?" Sirius asked once he had stopped laughing.

"What? No, yes," Remus's friends stared at him bewildered, "I—I'm fine, yes, fine. Just a little tired, couldn't sleep last night, er—headache." Remus wished he could tell them the real reason he hadn't slept the night before.

"You look like you haven't slept in weeks," Peter commented truthfully.

"No, I'm okay," Remus lied, "I had a bit of a cold, too." He pulled his transfiguration book out of his bag and buried his face behind it, hoping his bright red face wouldn't give him away.

Taking illness as a reasonable cause for sleep deprivation Sirius shrugged his shoulders and turned back to tormenting James. "I can't wait to watch Evans turn you down again," he laughed hoping to get a rise out of his friend. "She's never going to fall for your plan."

"You never know," James didn't pay heed to Sirius's goading, "Third year's the charm."

A/N: I can't say I really liked that chapter, I feel like I've lost the spark in this story. Why did Lily have to be so annoying and refuse to date James until seventh year? I'm running out of ideas for ways to make James ask her out and make her reject him. Hmmm, this may take some serious contemplation (ahhhh, I swear, once again, no pun intended). Well, I'm going to work on my other story for the time being, and maybe I'll be struck with a brilliant idea for this one, hopefully.


	18. 15 The Lucky Lady

Author's Note:

I am a very bad person who forgot all about this story for the past month and I am really, really sorry. I'm begging you to forgive this much humbled repentant sinner. Please?

Okay, now that you have all forgiven me (I hope), I'll let you get to the actual story.

J.K. ROWLING IS THE MASTERMIND HERE!

Ch. 15 Lucky Lady

James, Sirius and Ellyse tramped up the stairs of Hogwarts after Quiddich practice on Thursday night. They laughed as they tracked a trail of mud from the Entrance Hall to the Common Room, refreshed and happy from the long hard practice despite their soaking wet and cold uniforms and the heavy rain pattering on the windows.

"I can not _believe_ that hit you made, Sirius," Ellyse stated honestly. Her white-blonde hair was surprisingly free from mud as opposed to the rest of her body.

"Why thank you," Sirius responded proudly with his nose in the air.

James punched his friend lightly in the stomach, just hard enough for him to double over and lose a bit of the swagger from his walk. "That was an accident and you know it, Sirius," he pretended to be upset. "You were throwing your bat in the air without a proper grip on your broom trying to be a baton twirler and then you fell sideways off your broom. The only reason you hit the bludger at all was because you caught yourself by the legs upside down and your bat was in the right place at the right time."

Ellyse choked back a snort of laughter at Sirius's offended face. "Whatever you did, do it at the Ravenclaw match cause it sure looked cool from where I was watching," she offered. At that point they had reached the portrait.

"Balderdash," James said to the fat lady and then stepped through. As soon as they were inside they instantly noticed the buzzing students crowded around the announcement board. Ellyse and Sirius walked over to check it out but James instead looked around for Lily. Spying her in a corner with her nose buried in her divination text and her purring cat in her lap, he walked over with a cocky smile.

"Hey there, Evans," he announced loudly, several students turned to watch, expecting another amusing and loud Potter-Evans row.

"Potter," Lily didn't even look up but James noticed her eyes were no longer moving from right to left and back again. They were stock still on you particular word, possibly one letter, on the page.

"Wanna go out with me?"

"No," Lily remembered her vow to be pleasant. Looking up she smiled, "I'm afraid that wouldn't suit me."

James stared at Lily for a moment, surprised by her almost, dare he even think it, _friendly_ reaction.

For a moment Lily thought her plan was succeeding…

"Wanna marry me?"

"No," so much for being friendly.

"Your loss." James didn't feel the need to continue pestering Lily at the moment. He was looking forward to a long hot shower, after he had checked out that announcement.

Lily sighed in relief when James walked away. She gave Lorenzo a few pets on the head as she gave up on divination for the night. There was no way anyone could convince her anything in that text was anything other then bullshit. She smiled when she saw Ellyse approaching, clearly excited about something.

"Did you see the notice?" Ellyse asked. She didn't wait for Lily to answer, "The first Hogsmeade trip is this weekend!"

"Really?" Lily genuinely smiled but it quickly turned to a frown. She glanced toward the group of students by the board; quickly seeing the black haired boy who was almost to the front of the group, almost close enough to read it. "I have to go," she stated suddenly, smiling in apology to the scandalized looking Ellyse.

"Why?"

"Potter," Lily growled. She grabbed her back, Divination text, and cat and stormed up the stairs to the girls' dorm.

"Hey Evans! Wanna go to Hogs—" Lily heard James's voice briefly just before she shut the door to the dormitory.

She sighed in relief, resting with her eyes closed and her back against the thick wooden door. "Escaped," she whispered to herself. At a sudden giggle Lily's eyes flashed open and her cheeks turned the color of her hair.

"Worried about something, Lily?" asked Jordan. She was sitting on her bed with Claudia Harland with her luxurious black hair in one long French braid down her back. She was braiding Claudia's wavy golden hair into a similar plait.

Lily walked over to her trunk to pull out a light tank top; it was always sweltering hot in the girl's dorm. "Potter," she answered as she rummaged through her clothing, "He just saw the notice about Hogsmeade."

Jordan and Claudia exchanged knowing glances. "Why don't you just say yes?" Claudia asked with a shrug. "You might have fun. I'd go out with him if he ever asked me."

"He just drives me crazy," Lily confided flopping on Jordan's bed next to them, "I wish he'd stop pestering me for one day at least."

Ellyse banged into the room with a huge smile on her face. Lily hid the relief on her face at the distraction, "You guys will never believe what just happened," she announced.

"What?" asked Claudia quickly, twisting her head as far as she could with Jordan still braiding it.

"You will never believe who I'm going to Hogsmeade with," Ellyse said by way of an answer.

"Oh stop being evasive and tell us," Jordan snapped.

Ellyse seemed hurt for a second but the look she sent Jordan quickly faded. "Sirius Black."

"No way!" Claudia practically yelled, "Lucky! How'd he ask you?" Lily was the only one to notice Jordan's skin pale a shade.

"Well, here's how it happened," Ellyse sat on her trunk so as to not get mud on any of her blankets, "I read the board and was talking to Lily but then she ran upstairs to get away from Potter." Lily blushed scarlet but Ellyse continued. "So I was just sitting there when Sirius walked by. I was feeling somewhat reckless—"

"When aren't you?" Jordan muttered quietly. She clearly hadn't intended anyone to hear but Lily did.

"—So I just called him over. I told him I wanted to talk to him and he said he had been meaning to talk to me too. Then at the same time we both said, 'Wanna go to Hogsmeade with me.' It was so funny and we both started laughing. Then he just said, 'I take that as a yes,' and went up to his dorm. It was hilarious."

"That's so adorable," Claudia gushed.

" I can't believe you have a date already," Lily said laughing. "Look at you, you're covered in mud."

This fact seemed to have been forgotten by Ellyse who suddenly looked down and saw her dirt spattered Quiddich robes. With a laugh she walked into the bathroom. A second later they heard the water running.

"So who are you guys going with?" Lily asked, hoping no one would mention her and James again.

"I don't know yet, I'll find someone," Jordan answered, her face a mask as usual without betraying any emotion to Lily.

Lily chuckled, "More like you'll find everyone," she remarked. "Half the school will ask you out before breakfast tomorrow." She glanced at Jordan's high cheekbones and dark complexion, a combination of Spanish and French heritage.

Jordan laughed quietly but didn't answer. Lily turned to look pointedly at Claudia instead. "I don't know either," the blonde answered with a grimace, "Whoever asks me I suppose." _With those looks she'll have just as many guys running after her as Jordan._

"What about you, Lils?" Jordan asked.

Lily laughed cynically, "Anyone but Potter." She yawned and stood up, "I'm hitting the sack," she told them.

"Hmmm," Jordan tied a band around Claudia's braid as Ellyse left the bathroom, "I'll follow suit."

The girls brushed their teeth quickly and fell asleep even faster. Jordan lay awake long after the others, gazing out the window at the moonlit grass outside.

"I warned you…" she heard her mother's voice in her ear, "Never love them more then they love you. You must always be the one who is loved or you will trip and fall. The fall from the pedestal of pride is a long one, the landing hard."

A tear trickled out of the corner of Jordan's eye but she wiped it away furiously. "I remember Mama, I know," she whispered into the darkness. "I _have_ learned from your mistakes. He won't hurt me again, no one will." Jordan pulled the blankets over her head and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

o0o

Lily woke late the next morning, really late.

"I'm so sorry Professor," she babbled to Professor McGonnagall in their first period. Her hair was a frizzy mess; her face had a greasy sheen and her stomach growled loudly. "I overslept.

"Clearly," Professor McGonnagall responded, taking in Lily's disheveled appearance with disapproving eyes. "Take a seat Miss Evans."

"Thank you Professor," Lily mumbled as she rushed to her seat in the back of the room next to Sam. With an entertained smile, Sam covertly handed her a piece of toast under the table. Lily smiled in relief and she popped a piece in her mouth. "God, she scares me," she whispers.

"No kidding," Sam agreed. "I heard you were actually _nice_ to Potter last night when he asked you out."

Lily rolled her eyes sarcastically. "He just stared at me like I was mad. If I had been someone else watching I probably would have started laughing hysterically at his face. It was completely blank."

Sam bit back a surge of laughter, "The unfortunate thing is that I can imagine that."

Lily smiled in response, chewing her last bit of toast. Lunch seemed light years away. "So what are you doing for the Hogsmeade trip?"

"I'm going with a big group of people, some Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs and maybe a Gryffindor or two," Sam shrugged.

"O, fun," Lily pretended to be bending over her textbook. "I don't know what I'm doing yet but I have to find a date so I'll have a reasonable excuse for Potter when he asks me."

"Why don't you just say yes and get it over with?" Sam asked. "He's really cute and he obviously likes you."

"Are we talking about the same Potter?" Lily raised her eyebrows and sat up, looking at Sam, and losing all appearance of a studious pupil, "I'm a joke to him."

Sam opened her mouth to retort but they were interrupted, "Miss Lorne, Miss Evans, however fascinating I'm sure your conversation is, I would prefer you to pay attention to your task." Blushing a brilliant shade of magenta, Lily turned back to her armadillo and cast the spell written on the board before them. A walking pillow resulted. "Extra practice for you tonight Miss Evans in addition to the usual homework." Lily nodded with her eyes on the desktop, the picture of demure. Only when the Professor's back was turned did she grimace at Sam.

By the end of class, Lily's armadillo was successfully transfigured into a pillow but she couldn't get rid of the scaly pattern on the pillowcase. Needless to say she was not in a very good mood when she left Transfiguration.

"Evans," Lily kept walking. "Hey Evans, _Evans_, EVANS!"

"What do you _want_ from me Potter?" Lily almost screamed as she spun about on her heal.

James had been running and he almost crashed into her. Once he had stopped his self and caught his breath he grinned, "Well now that you ask…" he trailed off suggestively.

Lily sighed deeply in complete frustration. She shook her head at him and then spun around and marched away. James stood where he was for a moment, transfixed by the intoxicating scent wafted towards him by her hair. Shaking his head clear he ran after her. "Hey Evans, will you just listen to me for a second? Please?"

He had to stop short when Lily spun to face him once again, "Why yes of course James. What would you like to say?" Lily asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.

James couldn't understand what was going on for the second time in the past two days. He thought she might be mocking him but he didn't know or particularly care; she was talking to him and she was being civil. "Well, I just wanted to cordially extend you the invitation to be the lucky lady to accompany me to Hogsmeade this weekend."

"Oh James, really?" Lily cocked her head to the side with a flirty smile. She could not be genuinely friendly when he was so genuinely cocky.

James was absolutely shocked, "So does that mean you'll go with me?"

"No." Lily turned around and started walking again. She was almost to the Great Hall where the students were congregating for lunch.

"But Lily…"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"How come?"

"Because."

"You know you want to."

"No I don't."

"How come?"

"Because."

_Will he ever stop these infuriating questions?_ Lily asked herself furiously.

"What about now?"

Spying someone Lily came up with a reckless and cruel plan. Instead of answering she called out to a boy on the other side of the hall, "Michael. _Michael_!"

Michael Doney turned towards the voice. Seeing Lily he grinned from ear to ear. "Hey Lily." James trailed behind, within ear shot, curious as to Lily's sudden action.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?" Lily asked, sensing James's eyes boring into her back.

"Sure Lily," Michael responded, both surprised and pleased. "I'd love to."

"Great!" Lily laughed and gave him a big hug. They walked into the Great Hall together, leaving James behind them. Just as she reached the door Lily glanced over her shoulder to give James a victorious smirk. She made a double take however when she saw his dejected face and lifeless frame. Her second glance held more pity and a tinge of regret but she didn't turn back to apologize.

A/N: That was pretty long. I hope that makes up for it being so long in coming. I know they would have had more then one class before lunch, but let's just say it was double transfiguration. Now that I'm working on two stories I'll update this hopefully every week but it may become every two weeks. Summer's almost here which will give me much more time to write. Please, please, please review! It's much appretiated.


	19. 16 Hogsmeade

Author's Note:

In all honesty, I think this in one of my worst chapters ever, but it's somewhat necessary so I couldn't cut it. You'll just have to cope. Just so you know, you aren't supposed to know what's going on in Lily's dream cause it didn't really make sense to her either. If you do understand it then you're special and have a really good memory. Yay you!

I am not J.K. Rowling… nuff said.

Ch. 16 Hogsmeade

_You are an evil, despicable, self-centered bitch,_ Lily told herself for the twenty-seventh time that morning as she glanced up and met James's injured eyes for the twenty-seveth time. She sat at breakfast, staring at her eggs with a scowl on her face. She had been so excited about her first date that she had shamelessly pushed James's forlorn face to the back of her mind. Until last night, Lily suddenly felt cold as she recalled her dreams the night before. They had hardly made sense, flashing from one image to another, but in the end she was left with an extreme sense of guilt. She disappeared into a trancelike state, reliving the dream once again.

_Lily was walking down a long, dark hallway. She couldn't see light in either direction so she just kept walking. She quickly tired and began to panic as the thought that the halls might never end. She ran and her shoes wore thin, her feet broke through, suddenly the floor was jagged and covered in rocks and her feet were soon bleeding. In a panic Lily cried out for help anyone's help. As though she had spoken the magic password thousands of doors appeared along the hallway. She could hear people behind the doors but when she banged on the wood no one would open them. Lily went to hundreds of doors as her knuckles became more and more bruised. Finally one door opened at her knock. James opened the door but when Lily saw him she immediately turned to knock on another door. When she turned however she wasn't in the hallway, she was in the charms classroom, being interrogated. Then she was in the history of magic room upside down, "Hey Evans, go out with me?" he asked. "NO!" The Ravenclaw Common Room, "It's witty, I'll give you that, It's witty." She said. "I'm glad you like them, freshly captured by yours truly. Will you go out with me?" She slapped him. Then she was in the trophy room. "Marry me." He said. "Hey, you can't ask questions!" she responded. "It was a demand." She ignored him. The hallways, sunlight filtering through the dusty windows, "I won't give up you know. Not now, not ever." He had told her. "I know," she responded honestly. Then to just the other day. Time froze in that second, when she saw his face, his honest, plain, and unhidden anguish. Lily knew she was dreaming. She tried to force herself awake but she was lost in those eyes, those pained eyes._

Ellyse had woken Lily then, having heard her muttering. Lily had claimed she was dreaming about Petunia harassing her and Ellyse had believed it. Only when her friend had returned to her own bed had Lily wiped away the salty tracks of the silent, shameful tears from her face.

"Lily?"

"Hmm?" Lily looked up and glanced about, surprised.

"You were doing it again," Jordan whispered. "Your eyes went all funny and blurry."

With a start Lily realized she had almost started crying right there at the table. "Tired," she explained, "Didn't sleep well last night."

Jordan smiled sympathetically and nodded, ending the conversation. Lily shook herself mentally. She stood and exited the hall although she had eaten almost nothing. She needed to get herself together before she went to Hogsmeade with Michael that day.

Michael. How could she have forgotten? A fresh wave of guilt enveloped Lily. She was using him. She liked him, there was no doubt of that, but she had still used him to hurt Potter, to stop his incessant harassing, but whatever the reason she had used Michael. Lily took a deep breath of air and walked faster as though she could outrun the pulsating guilt running through her. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost ran into Sam.

"Lils?" she asked. "Are you alright?"

Lily looked up desperately, "Yes, no, maybe, I don't know."

Sam led her into an unused classroom, "What happened?"

With a glance at the closed door Lily started retelling her story, getting faster and higher in pitch as she went, "Well Potter kept harassing me about going to Hogsmeade with him yesterday on the way to lunch until finally I snapped so I walked right up to Michael and asked him out to shut Potter up. But then at the last second I turned to look at Potter and he just looked so dead, so tortured just because I'd asked Michael out. And I like Michael, I really, really do, but I used him so now I feel bad for making James look like that and for using Michael."

"Okay," Sam studied her hands seriously. "Lets look at each problem alone. In all honesty—I know you don't really want to hear this—but James is a good kid. I like him even if you don't, but I agree. His constant nagging somewhat needed to be curbed. That was a bit harsh but at least he may go easy on you for a while. As for Michael, you like him, don't you?" Lily nodded furiously, "Then perhaps James just made you mad enough that you had the nerve to ask Michael out. It sucks that it didn't happen another way, but would you have asked Michael out otherwise?"

Lily thought for a moment, "No, no I daresay I wouldn't."

"Then there you go," Sam smiled. "You probably still feel a bit guilty but I've at least rationalized your actions. Now, I want some breakfast."

With a quick hug Sam headed for the door but Lily called after her. "Thanks Sam," she told her, "Thanks a lot."

"That's what I'm here for," Sam confided with a shrug.

Lily sat alone in the empty room for a few minutes, thinking over Sam's words. She smiled and stood, feeling the burden of remorse fall from her shoulders. She walked back into the hallway with more spring in her step and a blissful smile on her face.

o0o

The girl's dorm was hectic when Lily returned from the owlry. She hadn't wanted to be alone in the dorm so she had walked up to post a letter home.

"Jordan, have you seen my blue eye liner?"

"Yeah, try Claudia's night stand."

"It's not there."

"Oh I have it," Claudia yelled from the bathroom where she was using said cosmetic. Lily bit back the urge to laugh out loud.

"Hey Lils," Jordan called from her bed where she was lightly applying bronzer to her already perfect skin. "You feeling better then this morning?"

"Much," Lily replied as she flicked her wand at the radio that instantly began playing a Billy Joel tune. Lily and Ellyse had insisted on muggle music, which in infinitely better then magical, in the dorm. She dug thorough her trunk and pulled out a pair of worn out jeans and a long sleeved white, swoop neck tee. "What do you think?" she asked, holing them up.

Jordan analyzed the outfit with one quick sweep of her eyes. "Simple but elegant. Or at least," she added in an after thought, "as elegant as jeans can be."

Lily fought off a laugh at the serious response. "Yay or nay would have been fitting," she told her friend.

"Clothing is very important," Jordan informed her friend. "You always want to make a good impression." She had dressed in a dusty blue cashmere sweater with a plunging neckline and jeans with matching blue stilettos.

"How are you going to walk in those?" Lily asked, nodding towards Jordan's feet.

"Easy," Jordan stoop and swept gracefully to the mirror propped against the wall, eye liner in hand.

Lily's breath caught in her throat at her friend's inexplicable grace, "Jesus, Jordan. How do you walk like that?"

Jordan's eyes were quizzical as they met Lily's in the mirror but they were also knowing. "What do you mean?" she asked although she clearly knew what.

"All graceful and flying," Lily answered.

Jordan chuckled, "I just walk."

Lily shook her head, "Who are you going with anyways?"

"David Owsly," Jordan answered evenly.

"The Ravenclaw seeker?" Lily asked with surprise. "Isn't he a fourth year?"

"Yeah. So?" Jordan watched Lily shake her head in amazement. _She thinks I can get any guy,_ she realized with a private grin of pride. _How wrong she is,_ a crueler voice answered. Jordan's stomach clenched in envy as Ellyse left the bathroom; somehow looking stunning in a Quiddich tee and torn up jeans. _You can get any guy but one, cause she got him first_, the cruel voice said.

Jordan forced herself out of her self-pity without the slightest physical betrayal of her feelings. "What's the deal between you and Sirius now anyways?" she asked indifferently. Inwardly she was testing herself; making sure she wouldn't give away her feelings in a more public area. She wouldn't lose a good friend over some stupid boy and she certainly wouldn't let him hurt her reputation.

"I don't know," Ellyse answered, her eyes suddenly solemn, "We sort of friends but we're sort of dating. It's complicated." She frowned and her eyes turned inward, her emotions practically printed across her face, Jordan noted. "Who are you going with Claudia?" Ellyse asked, quickly moving on. She'd take life as it came, no need to brood.

Claudia glanced at Lily nervously, "Uh, James."

Lily felt a swooping in her stomach that made her particularly unsteady on her feet. "What?" she head Jordan ask.

"Yeah, uh, James Potter asked me yesterday morning," Claudia continued. Lily had busied herself with he purse clasp but she glanced up at Claudia on occasion. The blonde had her hair parted to the left and swept along the right side of the frame of her face. She wore a snug fitting plum sweater and her short tan skirt extenuated her long tan legs.

Lily sighed in jealousy but also felt a bit proud that James had asked her out before Claudia. "Good," she said cheerfully, "You said you'd love him to ask you out and God knows I'm not going anywhere with him."

Claudia smiled at Lily's careless comment but was serious in response, "Thanks Lily."

"Hun," Lily held her hands up in a joking manner, "You can have Potter any time with my blessing. I don't have any claim over him." A fluttering in her gut made Lily's voice quaver for a moment but Claudia didn't notice.

o0o

Every second Lily spent with Michael at Hogsmeade made her like him even more. Before there had been a mutual friendship and affection but now she felt the slight fluttering in her gut when he grabbed her hand and she blushed when he complemented her.

The little shops were decorated for the fall with red and yellow ears of corn on the doors and pumpkins and squash sitting on the steps. Lily and Michael went into every little shop up and down the streets. Michael had grown up in a wizarding family and knew the village. He pointed out different shops and restaurants and told her stories about the various forms of trouble he and his three brothers had gotten into.

"And then, with our hands full of cockroach clusters we bolted out of the shop in various directions down the streets and alleys. He decided it wasn't worth the time to hunt us down," Michael finished his story about Honeydukes, the sweets shop. "And here it is, the best chocolate in the wizarding world." Michael opened the door for Lily who smiled appreciatively as she stepped in to the warm, sweet smelling room. "Lets hope they don't recognize me," he whispered in her ear.

Lily giggled and hid a smile behind her hand. They'd barely been in the store a full minute when the bell on the door rang and Jordan entered with David trailing behind. Lily laughed inwardly at Jordan's disdainfully bored expression. "I'll be right back," she told Michael who nodded, looking at the multiple varieties of sugar quills. She casually crept to her friend's side. "Not pleased with your date?" she asked quietly, failing to keep the humor from her voice.

Jordan sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look at him," she demanded. "He's practically drooling over me."

Lily glanced over her shoulder and snorted in her failed attempt to keep from laughing. "That wasn't very pretty," Jordan commented although her eyes were laughing.

"I couldn't help it," Lily gasped between silent giggles. David's eyes were fuzzy and unfocused as the stared at the reflected light coming off Jordan's hair. His head was cocked slightly to the side and he could have been sleep walking for all his attentiveness.

Jordan gave Lily a rueful smile and walked over to her date. He snapped to attention at her approach and offered to buy her some chocolate. Lily chuckled to herself as Jordan told him quite forcefully that she could buy her own chocolate.

Lily found Michael again and once they had bought a considerable amount of candy headed back out into the crisp October air. In Zonko's they saw Ellyse and Sirius but the two were so completely wrapped up in discussing some fireworks displays that Lily decided to leave them be. As the sun began to set Michael suggested they get a quick butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.

"What's butterbeer?" Lily asked him innocently. She kept walking a few steps before she realized Michael had stopped. She turned and looked at him quizzically.

"You've never had a butterbeer?" he asked shocked. Lily shook her head, still wondering what the drink was. Much to her surprise, Michael's eyes lit up. "Well then, I'll just have to have the pleasure of buying you your first." He grabbed her hand and pulled her quickly through the crowds. After a minute they reached a cheery looking pub with a creaking sign out front. Lily would have stayed outside to look at it for a moment but Michael pulled her through the door and past several grumpy customers to reach the bar.

"Oy, Rosmerta," he called to the shapely blonde barmaid who looked as though she must have just left Hogwarts last year. "We have a first timer here, never had a butterbeer. We'll take two."

"Of course, Michael," the bar maid responded with a grin and a covert glance at Lily through her eyelashes.

Michael slapped a few coins on the counter, refused Lily's offer to pay for her own drink, and grabbed the frothing drinks with a quick thank you. He gestured Lily to go first and she found them a booth towards the back of the pub where she had a view of the door.

"On first name terms with the barmaid?" she questioned as they sat.

Michael grinned at her well hidden jealousy. "She dated one of my brothers for a few years while she was at Hogwarts," he explained.

Lily smiled at his answer and took a deep sip of her butterbeer. Her eyes went wide and she stared at Michael for a second as she swallowed. She didn't register the opening door or the sharp air that swirled about her feet. "Wow," was all she could think to say. Suddenly she and Michael were both laughing their heads off for no reason besides her rather stupid exclamation.

"I guess you could describe it like that," Michael commented once he had caught his breath.

"I suppose I never warned you I'm blatantly honest," Lily told him with a shrug but she couldn't make the smile leave her face.

They each took a long drink from their glass, the way good friends will do when they want to cement a good memory into their brain. Lily glanced about the pub and spied Claudia and James on the other side of the room. Her stomach clenching in guilt once again but it was forgotten when she looked back into Michael's eyes.

He was smiling slightly at her and his eyes were warm. "Thank you so much for asking me to come with you Lily," he told her quietly but she could still hear him in the crowded bar. "I would never have worked up the guts to ask you and I really wanted to." Lily smiled appreciatively and her eyes invited him to continue. "Would you mind," he hesitated, "if I kissed you."

Lily hadn't expected him to ask, but had instinctively leaned forward. "Not a bit," she answered, as honest as she had told him she would be. Michael smiled and leaned across the table, his hand holding hers and slowly, sweetly he gave her a kiss right on the lips. It wasn't passionate or lustful but just sweet, the cherry on top of a perfect day.

o0o

James felt his fists clench in envy. Lily and her date, what was his name, Michael were laughing hysterically together as though they'd just spent the most incredible day together. He couldn't deny he'd had an incredible time with Claudia that day. She was by far one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever met but she just wasn't Lily. No one could ever compare to Lily.

He hadn't intentionally sat in a seat where he could see Lily but suspected he must have done so subconsciously. He felt bad for being inattentive to Claudia but he couldn't help watching and analyzing each of Lily's movements from the tapping of a toe to the slight twist of her head. She smiled, _had he complemented her_? She turned her head and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, _was he whispering quiet romantic words to her_? She laughed, _had he told her a joke_? Her eyes looked up to meet his, _had he called her by some sweet term of endearment_? She sipped her butterbeer, _had he bought it for her_?

Suddenly he remembered where he was again when Claudia grabbed his hand and began to trace patterns along the back of his hand. He fought the urge to pull his hand back without knowing why he wanted to.

Claudia looked up at him through her long lashes. She blushed when he twisted his hand so the palm faced up to hold her hand. "Claudia," he murmured with true affection if not the love he felt for Lily.

She met his eyes then and he bent his neck to kiss her. Just as their lips separated his eyes lifted and he saw Lily smiling as Michael also leaned in to kiss her. James felt his stomach clench in envy even though a beautiful girl was sitting right there, clearly infatuated with him.

He couldn't decide what feeling was stronger, envy of Michael or guilt for Claudia.

A/N: Well, I suppose that could have been worse. I've had a lot of suggestions for improved spelling and grammar so I'd love for anyone who's read the books to let me know if you want to beta for me. I only say I want someone who's read the books because I tend to forget little things like the names of Snape's parents in another one of my fics and it'd be good if I had a beta who would notice those sorts of mistakes as well as grammer. Thanks so, so much guys.


	20. 17 Politely Distant

Author's Note:

A special thanks to my new beta, cookiemonster93. Hopefully everyone will be really excited for no, or at least A LOT less, spelling and grammar errors in my story.

Ch. 17 Politely Distant

"Where _is_ Remus all the time?" Peter asked his friends as they sat around in the Gryffindor Common Room. He was furiously crossing out mistakes in his potions essay. "He always seems to disappear whenever I need him."

"You know, you can't always blame Remus for your failing grades," Sirius commented half-heartedly. He was sitting in the most widely visible chair in the common room, enjoying the covert glances and open stares of all the Gryffindor girls.

"You know Ellyse probably won't be very happy about your fan club, Sirius," James warned his friend as he played with the Snitch, a favorite habit of his. He glanced at Peter, "Peter's right though. Remus does seem to be horribly sick or have equally horribly sick relatives pretty often. He must have an awful immune system."

"What's an immune system?" Peter asked.

Sirius glanced boldly around the room one last time. "You're right," he faced James, disregarding Peter. "What was the last one?"

"His Great Aunt Mildred and Great Uncle Provis's 60th anniversary. A happy occasion for once," James told him. "What was it this time?"

"What's an immune system?" Peter asked again.

"His Great Uncle Provis had a heart attack, his Viagra stopped working so his marriage fell apart," Sirius replied with a straight face.

James laughed but he was still preoccupied. Peter stared at Sirius for a moment, but laughed when he saw James laugh first.

"No really, what was it?" James asked.

"I actually think it was a heart attack, but I'm not sure who," Sirius replied with a careless shrug. He glanced over his shoulder again and was rewarded with a chorus of giggles in response. With a grin he turned back to James and Peter. "What's up with him though? I wonder if he has family issues he doesn't want to tell us about. That wouldn't make sense though, my family's more screwed up then anyone's and I tell you guys about it."

"Maybe he has some really rare disease," James suggested.

"Maybe he's secretly engaged," Sirius joked.

"Maybe he's like a Duke or something and doesn't want the attention," James laughed at the thought.

"Or the Queen's consort," Sirius added.

"More likely her food tester," James responded.

"Maybe he's a werewolf," Peter said quietly.

Both boys stared at him for a second. "Way to ruin a good joke, Peter," Sirius told him in a shaky voice.

"What could make you say that?" James asked as he laughed but the sound was harsh even in his own ears. Peter just shrugged and mumbled something incoherent.

"Don't be foolish, Remus isn't a werewolf," he dismissed the idea but not his sudden chills, "I'll prove it."

"How will you do that?" Sirius was suddenly interested again.

"When he gets back we'll follow him. We'll ask him all about where he's going and then follow him to see if he's honest. We have my cloak and the map." Peter gasped when James mentioned the map. He and Remus had been perfecting the spells on a map of Hogwarts they had made. They wouldn't take it out of the dorm until they'd found a way to make it go blank when they needed it to. At the moment it included all the rooms in the castle and all the secret passageways they'd discovered. Sirius had found a spell that could get the map to say where each person in the castle was located but they hadn't tried it yet. "Hopefully the spell will work and then we'll be able to follow him without going anywhere as long as he stays in the castle next time he's 'sick'." James accented the word sick with a questioning tone.

"Sounds good," Sirius agreed. "But we can't tell a soul."

"Not a word," James agreed.

oOo

Despite their resolute decision, James's mind was far from Remus for the next month. He hadn't asked Lily out in weeks since he was dating Claudia and felt somewhat lifeless for the lack of fights. The rest of the school also felt the lack of excitement. Gossip was at an all time low and the two school gossips, Rita Skeeter and Bertha Jorkins, were getting bored, which was never a good thing.

Lily could sense this complete lack in excitement as soon as she walked into the Great Hall for dinner on a late Friday in November. She was late because Lorenzo had been acting up again and she realized with a start that the only seat left at the Gryffindor table was right next to James. "I'll eat quickly and leave," she told herself quietly. "But he has been friendly enough lately, and I promised myself I wouldn't be mean to him this year." She reached her seat, "Hello James," she said politely.

"Oh, hey Lily," James moved his books to make room for her. Lily sat stiffly and began to serve herself.

Two minutes later, "James, could you pass the corn?"

"Of course," he replied neutrally, handing her the bowl, "Careful, it's hot."

"Thanks."

Four minutes later, "How do you think you did on that Defense Against the Dark Arts essay?" James asked her.

"Pretty good," Lily responded.

"Good," James nodded and smiled but it was far from his usual full faced, crooked smile, "Me too."

"Good."

Five minutes later, "Uh, James."

"Lily—" James started to say at the same time. "Oh, go ahead," James told her.

"No, no. I insist," Lily countered.

"Well okay," James mentally kicked his self, "If you insist. I just wanted, I wondered if you would pass the salt."

"Of course," Lily handed him the saltshaker with an unsteady hand. "I was just going to say bye." James stared at her. "I'm going to go see Michael," she pointed lamely over her shoulder.

"Oh okay," James answered, openly discouraged, "It was nice talking to you."

"You too," Lily bounced awkwardly on the balls of her feet; uncertain of if she should walk away or not.

"Bye."

"Bye, James."

"Hey James," James snapped his head back in the other direction so quickly that he hurt his neck.

"Oh, hey Claudia," he said, massaging his neck as he watched her take the seat Lily had vacated.

She kissed his cheek lightly and grabbed some food. "You won't _believe_ what just happened in my potions class…" James tried to concentrate but he was just completely caught up in Lily's previous closeness. She had been polite, awkward, but polite. She sat next to him, and talked to him, and asked him for salt, his new favorite spice.

"James," Claudia's voice cut into his day dreaming, "Are you even listening?"

"Of course," he told her, _crap, what was she saying?_ "Umm, potions class," he half asked.

"Good," Claudia's frown quickly turned to a smile, "And then Slughorn was like…" James's mind took off again.

"Hey Michael," Lily forced James's face out of her mind.

"Hey Lils," Michael smiled and his perfect teeth dazzled her. He moved over to make room for her. "How's it going?"

"Good," she lied. _Look at her, chattering away at a million words a second, _she watched James and Claudia through the corners of her eyes. "What about you?"

"Not bad," Michael answered. "Have you heard about the next Hogsmeade weekend?"

"No I haven't heard about it," Lily answered. _How can he even care about anyone who can talk that fast through teeth that big,_ she was actually jealous of Claudia's perfect smile but she wouldn't say that.

"Just before Christmas," Michael told her.

"Is that so?" Lily asked in a distracted manner, _How could he like me so much and then out of nowhere just ask someone else out? And why someone as boring as Claudia? I like her, but she's just so, _empty

"Yeah, would you want to go with me?" Michael asked.

"Oh yeah, sure," Lily's voice lacked any hint of excitement. _Is he really that shallow?_ She narrowed her eyes as she stared intently at James, trying to gauge his reaction to Claudia's chattering. Her gaze attracted his attention, he looked up and their eyes met for the briefest of seconds. "Sounds great," she faced Michael with a big, fake grin on her face. "Sorry I'm a bit out of it, I just had a rough test," she explained although she'd found the test easy. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips and gathered her books.

"That's all right," Michael answered quietly, surprised by the sudden intimate gesture.

"I'll see you later," Lily turned and walked away. She looked towards James but he was staring determinedly at his plate. She suspected he must have seen her kiss Michael.

oOo

The next morning Lily, Ellyse and Jordan noticed something odd. As they walked through the halls people would stop their conversations and whisper behind their hands, pointing to one of the girls though they couldn't be sure whom.

"In the owlry?"

"Yeah, I heard…"

"_Scandalous!"_ (A/N: I just had to put that in there.)

"For hours…"

"…and she has a _boyfriend_?"

"The library…"

"Oh my gosh!"

"What is wrong with these people?" Ellyse demanded, furiously meeting the eyes of and staring down anyone she caught looking at them.

"I'll find out," Jordan didn't mind the attention but she had a hunch that something wasn't quite right with the rumors going around. "Hey you!" she yelled at a terrified looking second year. "What are you whispering about?" She walked right up to the girl and stood a foot away popping a hip to the side. Someone whistled down the hall and Jordan threw a satisfied smirk over her shoulder.

"Nothing," the girl watched her feet as she scuffed them on the flagstones.

"Look at me," Jordan commanded without the slightest hint of any emotion in her voice. The girl looked up out of curiosity but Jordan's face gave away nothing of her inner thoughts. "Every boy you ever have and ever will like will drool over me in complete obsession if you don't tell me exactly what's going on," Jordan's voice dripped with malice but everyone nearby could hear the honesty as well.

The girl struggled for words for a moment but her friend came to the rescue. "Why don't you ask her what we're talking about?" she nodded her head towards Lily and popped a hip in imitation of Jordan but it didn't receive half the response.

"What are you talking about?" Lily shook her head at the girl, at a loss for words.

"Names," Jordan lost her attitude and stood straight.

"Shay Travens," the first girl mumbled.

"June Greenly," the second stuck out her chin bravely, "Who's asking?"

Jordan almost responded but the girl's attempt at imitating her every move entertained her. She started laughing. June stared at her, shock and horror taking over her face. The laughter was infectious, it spread to every person in the hall and eventually even to Shay and June. "Jordan Gray," Jordan told her through laughter. "You aren't half bad, I'll see you two around." She walked away with Ellyse and Lily.

"Uh, Jordan," Lily began, "What did that accomplish?"

"Well I," Jordan paused, "I guess I forgot to make her tell me what all those rumors are about. She was just so funny. EMOTD."

Lily paused for a moment and then her face cracked into a smile and she started to laugh. Ellyse looked from one to the other. "_What_ are you laughing about?" she insisted.

That only made the girls laugh even harder. "EMOTD," Lily explained, "Ellyse Moment Of The Day." Ellyse still didn't get it for a second; they watched her for a second as her face suddenly showed the dawning of comprehension.

"I can't believe you guys," she told them in what was meant to sound like an I'm-so-above-that-type-of-behavior look. "Hey Sam!" she called, spotting the Ravenclaw ahead of them. "Wait up. I'm going to go talk to more mature people," she huffed away leaving her friends in even more in fits of laughter.

"She doesn't like Sam," Jordan gasped.

"I know, she's too much," Lily agreed.

"I wish we had a picture of that face," Jordan commented as they entered their DADA class.

"Hey Lily."

"No, no, and no," Lily forcefully looked towards the window.

"I wasn't going to ask you out," James stopped a few feet away, looking affronted.

"Oh," Lily blushed as she remembered that he had a girlfriend. "What do you want then?"

"Do you have any extra parchment?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." She gave him the paper and sat down next to Jordan.

"So how's your lover doing," Jordan asked her as she pulled out her books.

"He – is – not – my – lover!" Lily turned bright red and kicked her friend under the table.

oOo

"Hey James," Claudia caught up with her boyfriend as they left the class an hour later. "Would you mind coming with me to grab some books?"

"No, of course not," James changed course and walked against the crowd with Claudia. He didn't notice how oddly silent she was until they were in an empty hall.

"So, James," Claudia stopped so she could look at him, a scowl on her face, "Have anything you'd like to tell me."

"Uh, no," James ruffled his hair in confusion.

"What'd cha do last Thursday night?" she asked as her eyes hardened.

"Um, I don't know," James trailed off, lost as to what was going on, "I guess homework?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you and Margaret Prichard got lots of homework done while you were snogging her in the library," Claudia's voice dripped with harsh sarcasm.

"You think I did what?" James almost yelled. "That's ridiculous! Claudia, I cannot believe you would actually believe that! I tutor her in Transfiguration."

"Then why didn't you say that when I first mentioned Thursday?" Claudia was looking somewhat humbled.

"Because normally I tutor her on Wednesday but I had to postpone because of Quiddich practice," he explained.

"Oh," Claudia stated weakly. "But what about Lily?" she wouldn't lose a fight she had just made such of an idiot out of herself in.

"Lily?" James's heart was racing, what were people saying about Lily?

"You still lo—like her don't you?" Claudia asked him quietly.

"No, no of cou—" James's voice broke. He tried again, "I don—" He shook his head as he struggled to form the words.

Claudia's face was sad and even worse tearful, "Well it was fun," she told him. "I'll see you later James," she held out her hand for him to shake.

He gave it an extra squeeze as she was turning, "I'm sorry," he told her quietly.

"What are you standing around with me for?" Claudia smiled through her sadness, "Go get her tiger."

James grinned and bolted down the hallway. Things were feeling right again, James was going to ask Lily out again.

oOo

"Hey Lily, would you mind waiting for me just a second?" Michael asked Lily as he cleaned him tray from Herbology.

"Yeah sure," Lily told him. She leaned back against the railing of a cart of Ningdigit Sloker-Plants, a strange looking flower with a sickening scent that grew upside down. Lily really had no idea why they were growing them, but she suspected Professor Berryton secretly loved the smell.

By the time Michael finished, Lily noticed he took an unnecessarily long time; everyone else was already in the castle. "Lily, what's going on with us?" he asked her after a few moments of silent walking.

"What do you mean?" Lily started to run her fingers through her hair but then she remembered where she learned that habit and stopped. "We're dating."

"But do _you_ think of us as dating?" he asked.

"Of course," Lily replied, glancing at Michael in curiosity and worry. "Why are you asking this?"

"Don't play innocent Lily," Michael's tone suddenly became harsh. "I know what you've been doing!"

"Play innocent at what?" Lily was sick of all the mystery that day. Things should be straightforward. Like James asking her out, and then her saying no. No deception, just pure honesty.

"You kissed Richard Oliver in the Owlry just last night!" They were getting closer to the school entrance, Lily could hear people eating their dinner and laughing.

"No, I did not," Lily massaged on of her temples. "There is not the slightest truth to that. I haven't talked to Richard for days."

"Somehow I don't believe you," Michael answered.

"Fine then don't believe me," Lily told him. "I really don't care at this point."

"Even if you are being honest, what about Potter?" Michael insisted.

"_What about Potter_?" Lily voice was low.

"Well he's in love with you, do you deny it?" Michael completely missed the warning note.

"So now you're breaking up with me because Potter thinks he knows what love is?" Lily screamed. "This is such crap, Michael! I'm done! Find yourself someone else to go to Hogsmeade with!" She stormed into the castle and into the Great Hall. Instantly the whole room hushed.

Lily glanced around, hoping no one had heard her fight. Then she saw Potter step onto the table. "Oh no," she muttered, frozen to the spot, "Oh no."

James turned to face her with the most ecstatically happy look on his face imaginable. Then he began to sing, and very off key at that. "OOH BABY I LOVE YOUR WAY, EVERY DAY! WANNA TELL YOU I LOVE YOUR WAY EVERYDAY! I WANNA BE WITH YOU NIGHT AND DAY! UH YEAH!"

He would have continued but Lily screeched even louder then his singing, "No, I will not be your friend, no, I will not go out with you, and no, I will not marry you."

With that she turned on he heal and marched back out of the hall as the school erupted into applause. She couldn't keep a slight smile off that James was back at her again.

A/N: I know, very dramatic but young teenagers can be extremely over dramatic. It was really long too, but whatever. The song is by Big Mountain and is actually a pretty good song. I don't know if it was out then but oh well. Hope you liked it, please review.


	21. 18 A Christmas Duo

Author's Note:

Wow, this chapter was long in coming. I'm pretty excited though because it's Christmas (In the story. I'm not that crazy, I know it's July) and I love Christmas. Hope you like it.

Ch. 18 – A Christmas Duo

Ellyse yawned as she stretched out in her bed. She ran a hand through her silvery blonde hair without it getting caught once. Her hair never tangled; she suspected there was Veela blood somewhere in her mother's family.

With a sigh she threw back her thick quilt and sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Hey Jordan?" she whispered. "You up?"

No answer.

"_Jordan_," she said a bit louder. She pulled back the curtains on her bed and pulled her bathrobe over her shoulders. "You know Lily never gets up early."

Ellyse slipped out of bed, intending to go wake Jordan, but the icy cold on her feet reminded her why Jordan wasn't answering. "Christmas," she breathed. She dashed over to the window and looked out to the snow covered grounds. "It's beautiful."

After staring out at the grounds for a good minute she turned back to the room. At the foot of her bed was a small stack of presents from her friends and family. Ellyse's smile was bittersweet. She loved Christmas, and the gifts, but she was all alone in the dormitory. The girls had left the day before. She lifted a brightly wrapped square package that looked like a book and opened the card

_Merry Christmas, Ellyse!_

_Sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate with you. Missing you from my miserable home and wishing I was with you. Hope you enjoy yourself anyways._

_Lily_

All the girls in the dorm had gone home for the holiday. Claudia and Jordan both enjoyed time with their families; they had looked forward to the break. Lily's mother had caught pneumonia and Lily felt obligated to be around to help. Petunia was a terrible nurse. Ellyse tried to think of someone else she could spend the day with but no one came to mind. James, Remus, Peter and Sirius all had family they would surely want to be with. She didn't like Sam very much but regardless Sam had gone home too.

With a sigh Ellyse gathered her gifts into her arms and headed to the door of the dorm. With any luck there would be at least one person in the Common Room who she could talk to.

Ellyse stumbled down the stairs, having difficulty seeing over the parcels in her arms. She dropped them on the couch.

"Ouch!" one of the gifts yelled.

"Excuse me?" Ellyse asked. _Maybe I'm still sleeping,_ she thought to herself.

"I said 'Ouch'," returned the voice.

Ellyse picked up a few gifts to reveal a disgruntled Sirius Black. "Oh my goodness," she exclaimed clearing off all the rest of the gifts. _I didn't know he was here._ "I'm so sorry. I didn't see you." _No shit Sherlock._

He laughed, surprisingly. "I'd certainly hope not," he smiled charmingly. It took Ellyse a second to understand what he meant but then she laughed in response and sat on a different couch.

"I didn't think you were staying at the castle for the holiday," she remarked, reaching for the first gift box. Her voice was cheerful, glad to have company for the holiday.

"Didn't want to deal with my family," Sirius answered, also opening a gift. "I love the peace and quiet in the school when almost everyone else is gone."

"That sounds vaguely familiar," Ellyse remarked, her crystal blue eyes quickly transitioning to a dark, storm cloud shade.

"Family problems?" Sirius asked, flipping through the first few pages on a book, probably given to him by Remus.

"Yup," Ellyse answered, her voice sarcastically cheerful. She did smile a bit though as she opened the magical cosmetics kit Jordan had given her.

"Same here," Sirius told her with a shrug. She was amazed at how little it seemed to bother him. "What's up with your family?" he asked.

"My Mum and Dad were great," she began, pausing in her gift opening. "But my Mum died giving birth to my little sister Julia, she's eight now." Her voice was regretful and filled with compartmentalized pain. "My Dad remarried a year before I came here; her name's Susan. She's blonde, young, pretty, and was coming off a bad divorce. Her daughter, Caroline, is a fifth year, Hufflepuff. They're so happy together and I just don't fit in. For starters I hate Susan, and Caroline. But my Dad loves them, and so does Julia. She looks up to Caroline, instead of me." Ellyse broke off. "They're all happier when I'm not there," she finished in a quieter voice.

"My family is all dark," Sirius told her. "They love muggle baiting and dark magic and Slytherins and purebloodedness. And they hate me." He was matter of fact and completely calm; he didn't even seem upset. "They love my little brother. He's all into the pureblood, '_down with the muggle borns'_ crap."

"That's awful," Ellyse couldn't think of anything comforting to say. He didn't look like he needed it anyways.

"I could say the same to you," he smiled ruefully. "Now, onto more cheerful subjects, are you going to eat all of those?" he pointed to the box of chocolate frogs she had just unwrapped.

"Help your self," Ellyse told him, holding out the box.

"Indeed I will," Sirius grabbed a handful and popped one in his mouth. Ellyse laughed, glad again to not be spending Christmas alone.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"SIRIUS I-HOPE-YOU-HAVE-AN-EMBARRASSING-MIDDLE-NAME BLACK!" Ellyse screamed across the Quiddich stadium. "YOU ARE SUCH A CHEATER! YOU SUMMONED THAT FREAKING QUAFFLE RIGHT OUT OF MY HANDS AND YOU KNOW IT!"

"I did no such thing," Sirius protested as he flew closer, but still far enough away to scram if she decided to try and knock him off his broom. He couldn't hold back his bark like laugh, however, making his guilt impossible to deny.

Ellyse shook her head disapprovingly and turned her broom to descend slowly. "What am I going to do with you, Sirius Black?"

"Oh, oh," Sirius waved his hand in the air, "I know!"

"What, Sirius?" she asked as she touched the ground and swung her broom over her shoulder.

Sirius landed next to her, dismounting likewise. "You can take me to the kitchens to get the house elves to give me hot chocolate and lots of Christmas cookies," he suggested excitedly.

"And have you spoil your supper?" she joked. "I don't know where the kitchens are anyways."

"I do," he told her naturally, opening the door to the castle for her.

"I should have known," Ellyse chuckled, "Of course you do. Lead the way Sirius."

He grinned and grabbed her hand and led her through passageways she'd never seen before. Finally they reached a wide, well-lit hallway lined with paintings somewhere deep underground. "Where are we?" she asked.

Sirius approached a large canvas with a still life bowl of fruit on it. He reached up and _tickled_ a pear. "The kitchens," he turned to grin at her as the picture swung forward revealing hundreds of little oddly dressed house elves in a warm bustling kitchen.

Ellyse's eyes widened and she stepped through the portrait hole uncertainly. "So these are house elves?" she asked as the little creatures bustled around them, offering them seats as well as food and drinks.

Sirius smiled at her mystified expression. "Have you never seen house elves before?" he asked, bemused (A/N: I've been waiting to use that word in a fic for weeks). Ellyse just shook her head as a female house elf lifted her feet onto a stool. "We have one at home," he told her. "Nasty thing. Name's Kreatcher and it practically worships my mother." Ellyse noticed how he said "it" instead of "him".

"Would yous be wanting anything to eat, Mr. Black and Miss?" asked a small, male house elf.

"Oh hello," Ellyse smiled and held out her hand, having gotten over the initial shock. "I'm Ellyse Mellow. What's your name?"

The house elf stared at her out raised hand like it was poisonous. "I is called Froble, Miss," he informed her shakily.

"Oh, Ellyse please," Ellyse insisted, lowering her hand.

Froble smiled weakly. "Yes, Miss." Ellyse decided not to interrupt. "Would yous be liking anything?" he addressed Sirius.

"Yes, please, Froble," Sirius smiled, flashing perfect white teeth. "Some hot chocolate and cookies, if you wouldn't mind."

"Right away, Sir," Froble grinned at the order. "Just a moment." He bowed so low that his long nose touched the ground and backed away.

"Poor guy," Sirius watched Froble walk away. "He's probably terrified out of his wits by you."

"Why?" Ellyse was completely confused. "I tried to be polite. He wouldn't even call me Ellyse. Did I offend him?"

"Completely," Sirius nodded, smiling at her shock. "House elves expect to be mistreated. It's who they are. They live to serve wizards for nothing and they expect all wizards and witches to demand the utmost respect and adoration. He's probably afraid you're testing him or something."

"That's awful," Ellyse frowned, "We don't pay them anything?"

"That's why none of them are properly clothed," Sirius nodded. "If a house elf disobeys his or her master or embarrasses them in any way the master will present them with clothes which is symbolic for sacking them."

"How terrible," Ellyse watched the elves on the other side of the room thoughtfully. "Why don't they revolt or demand wages?"

"They like it," Sirius laughed again at Ellyse's incredulous look. "No, really. They enjoy working. It's the biggest shame imaginable to be given clothes. Dumbledore's offered to pay them before but he offended them so thoroughly that he vowed never to make the offer again."

"Strange," Ellyse mused, chewing on the end of a clump of hair. She would have continued but Froble approached.

"Here you are Sir and Miss," he presented them with a huge silver platter with two huge, steaming cups of rich hot chocolate and countless, delectable cookies. "Yous tell humble Froble if there's anything else he can be getting yous."

"Thank you very much, Froble," Ellyse smiled warmly, flashing her own brilliant set of teeth, "You have been a most helpful and amiable servant."

"Oh thank you, thank you, Miss," he beamed from ear to ear. "Froble is always happy to help." With another floor scraping bow he backed away.

Ellyse smiled to herself as she sipped her hot chocolate, surprised to find it at just the right temperature. "Looks like I've made a new friend," she looked up to see Sirius gazing warmly at her.

"Indeed you have," he looked away quickly and grabbed a Christmas tree shaped sugar cookie off the tray. "I don't think you could have said anything he'd find more complementary. He'll be the most loyal of friends to you now, since he likes you. You can come down here for a snack any time and I'm sure he'd give you a feast."

"Oh good," Ellyse commented, choosing an oatmeal cookie. "But I don't think I could easily find the way by myself," she suggested.

"I'll show you," Sirius told her.

Ellyse grinned as she accomplished her goal. "I'd like that," she told him.

A/N: I could have added more but I like this one, sort of short and sweet. I love Froble. He's definitely showing up again. I considered making him hate working like Dobby but then Ellyse would have freed him on the spot and then I couldn't have him in the story as much.

HAPPY FORTH OF JULY! (almost...)


	22. 19 Reading Minds

Author's Note:

I love Sirius in this but I don't really love the chapter as a whole. It's funny but I think it's a bit dull.

Ch. 19 Reading Minds

If someone had looked at the Gryffindor table on the morning of January 3rd, the day classes resumed after the break, they would have seen some rather odd behavior in the third years. For starters there was Lily Evans and James Potter's strange attitudes. They were sitting across from each other and having staring wars. James because he wanted to stare at Lily and Lily because she was annoyed with him for staring at her and couldn't let him win anything against her. Neither paid any attention to the even stranger actions of their friends.

Jordan Gray, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, all sitting in a row, each wore the same shocked expression as they each held a piece of toast in their right hands, half way to their mouths. Remus was calculating, Peter looked awed and Jordan was fuming. All had their eyes trained on two completely oblivious people.

Ellyse Mellow sipped her tea slightly and then scrunched up her face. Without having looked at her, Sirius Black added a spoonful of sugar to it. She didn't seem to notice as she read The Daily Prophet but she reached down to lift the cup and taste it just as he finished stirring.

Sirius reached for a piece of toast and Ellyse was already holding out the jar of his favorite apricot jelly. She finished the article she was reading, closed the paper and placed it in Sirius's already outstretched hand. She lifted her eyes as she took another sip of tea (to which Sirius had just added a touch of cream) and met the dumbfounded expressions of her companions.

"What?" she asked. Sirius looked up.

The group stared at each other for a moment. "What do you mean, what?" Jordan asked in a deprecating manor as she shot a death glare towards the two. "It's obvious isn't it?"

"No." Ellyse said simply. Sirius just stared at Jordan completely missing the reason for her anger.

"You're practically reading each other's minds," Remus said, his forehead furrowed as he tried to figure out just what was going on.

"It's creepy," Jordan commented.

"How do you do it?" Peter asked in an awed voice, staring at Sirius like he was a god.

Sirius and Ellyse looked at each other, then at everyone else. "We still don't know what you're talking about," Sirius informed them. Jordan huffed in disbelief.

"But the tea and then the toast and the paper and then the toast again," Peter rambled, completely confused. Ellyse shrugged. Sirius placed the platter of scrambled eggs into her upraised hand and she scooped some onto both their plates. Ellyse grabbed the salt as Sirius was grabbing the pepper and then the two switched.

"You're doing it again," Remus told them.

"Doing what?" Ellyse asked, starting to get worried that she was missing something. Sirius just kept eating.

"What exactly happened over the break?" Jordan asked them. Ellyse's transparent skin turned bright pink as she began patting Sirius on the back milliseconds before he started coughing from the piece of egg he choked on.

Jordan met Remus's eyes, which had the same knowing expression as hers, or would have if she'd been properly containing her anger. "I see."

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As the weeks progressed, other people in the school began to notice the change in Sirius and Ellyse, that is, everyone but James and Lily. James was too obsessed with getting Lily to go out with him and Lily because she was too annoyed with him for his attempts.

When Emma Wang, a Hufflepuff with a notorious reputation for always dressing inappropriately, walked into the Great Hall for dinner that night, Sirius walked right into her, knocking her onto the ground. He had been talking to Ellyse about Quiddich tactics and apologized quickly to Emma without his eyes ever leaving Ellyse's. He walked away, leaving a fuming Miss Wang sitting on the floor looking scandalized that he hadn't even noticed that her skirt was about two inches higher then usual (due to her being on the ground). Of course a few other guys (cough) noticed and she was moderately appeased.

Ellyse's round of boyfriends dwindled to none. She had never been cruel, she just got bored most of the time with any guy who was lucky enough, or unlucky enough to date her. She had broken up with most within two weeks.

Sirius's state was even more shocking. His fan club held a funeral for the loss of "their darling Siri" as they knew him and even James asked Sirius once who he was gong to date next. Sirius had mumbled some incoherent answer about laying low for a bit and James, catching the lie, would have delved deeper but Lily entered the Common Room and he felt the need to jump up on a chair and scream across the room yet another invitation (which was declined) to date him.

"Hi Sirius," Lily said a bit too loudly as she pulled a book off the shelf.

Sirius jumped a mile and squeaked, then ran around a corner to hide. Seconds later three giggling girls walked into the aisle, pretending to look at the books, but after a few seconds they realized that Sirius was no longer there and left dejectedly.

Lily raised an eyebrow and waited a moment for Sirius to return. He peeked around the corner and then tip toed over to Lily. "Hush Evans!" he insisted quietly, pulling out a book and holding it in front of his face. "Do you _want_ them to find me?"

"Slightly, yes," Lily answered as she pulled another book from the shelf. "Never thought I'd see you here," she commented.

"Well they don't really expect me to be here so I'm not," he told her.

"Yes, that's true," Lily answered, "But I'm quite sure I remember you telling me that you were allergic to the library in second year."

Sirius stared dumbly at her for a second. "Oh." Suddenly he started coughing loudly and unrealistically.

"Oh no, Sirius," Lily yelled over his hacking. "Are you alright, _Sirius Black_?" She giggled as his coughing stopped abruptly and the girls returned, this time joined by three more of their friends.

"Have you seen Sirius Black?" the bravest one asked Lily, who had gone back to her reading for the moment.

"Oh, no," Lily answered looking up from her book. "I was so wrapped up in my book I didn't even notice anyone going by." The girls looked disgusted with Lily's obvious lack of taste and trudged away unwillingly.

"Christ, Evans!" Sirius came back around the corner. "They're going to suffocate me some day and then you'll be sorry."

"Didn't know you were religious, Black," she answered. "Excuse me," the librarian was passing by, "I'd like to check this one out."

"Oh just go ahead and take it, Lily dear," the motherly woman smiled at her. "You always return them." She sent Sirius a warning glare and then bustled away.

Lily started to walk away but Sirius grabbed her arm. "No way Evans," he told her. "You got me into this," he pointed through the book shelf at the table full of girls, "you get me out." He ducked behind her as footsteps approached but it was only a few Ravenclaw boys who didn't even notice them.

Lily chuckled. "All right then," she pulled a book from her bag and handed it to him. Then she pulled out her wand and waved it before Sirius could protest.

His eyes widened. "What did you do?" he asked her warily.

Lily giggled rebelliously and then pulled a pocket mirror out of her bag. The shriek that followed was even higher then Lily thought her own voice could reach.

"MY HAIR!" Sirius shrieked, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY HAIR?"

Lily surveyed the charm proudly. Sirius's usually perfect long black hair was now cut short and a very fake looking strawberry blondish color. "Calm down," Lily soothed although she dearly wanted to just walk away and leave it that way. "I can change it back."

"THEN CHANGE IT, NOW!" he demanded, "BEFORE ANYONE SEES!" He ducked behind Lily again as two Slytherin girls passed them.

"I will," Lily moved to the side, laughing as he scurried to stay hidden behind her. "It's your disguise to get you out of here," she informed him. "Bury your face in that book and read from it in a nasally voice and I'll walk with you and pretend to be friends with you. Oh yeah," she grabbed a piece of parchment and transfigured it into a pair of huge, dorky glasses. "Wear these," she held them out to him, "and don't hold the book too close to your face or people will get suspicious."

"But what if someone recognizes me?" Sirius refused to be happy with a plan in which he lost his beautiful hair.

"They won't." Lily didn't ask him if he was ready, she just turned and walked towards the door.

Sirius rushed after her and held the book up close to his face. "Oh Lily," his voice was a pitch higher and nasally as though his glasses were squeezing his nose too tightly. Lily stifled a giggle. "Have you ever heard of this _pelamor_ spell? It changes hair to any other style and color." Sirius's face paled and his eyes narrowed behind their thick panes of glass. "Sounds _fascinating_," his voice dipped much lower and closer to his usual speech.

Lily raised an eyebrow at him. "Maybe we should try it some time," he suggested, returning to the high nasal voice. "Perhaps turn your hair short, black, and spiky. That would nifty." He slipped his wand out of his pocket.

"Don't even think about it," Lily warned. Then, quieter, so no one else could hear, "Sirius." They passed two desolate looking second years who were gazing about the room.

Sirius paled again and even took on a slightly greenish tinge. He laughed with a few snorts thrown in. "Well all right then," he agreed, "It'll just have to be my hair then. We can make it long and black and sleek and stylish, like Sirius Black." The two second year girls looked at him with upturned noses. "Remind me to never date either of them," he whispered to Lily.

"No," Lily reached up and tousled his hair, "I was thinking that you'd look just dazzling with blonde curls," Sirius flinched, "Lovely little curly cues."

"Ah yes!" Sirius clapped—or clapped as well as one can while holding a book—as they finally left the library. "That would be simply divine!"

As soon as they were through the doors the two took off down the hall and turned down a few corridors before they finally fell against the wall laughing. "Your fan club looked disgusted with you," Lily told him. "Of course they didn't know it was you," she added as an afterthought. "I just have to ask," she became more serious (no, no pun was intended there), "After seeing that little performance, 'that would be simply divine,'" she quoted. "Have you even had your, er—feelings drift more towards your own sex?"

Sirius stared at her. Lily burst out laughing, "I was joking you idiot!"

"Oh," Sirius grinned at his complete miss of the sarcasm, yet again, and pulled off the glasses, stowing them in his pocket.

They headed down the hall together. "Just so you know," Lily started. "The _pelamor_ spell is semi-permanent. That's not what I cast on you; you just coincidently opened to that page. If I'd used that you'd have this hair for about three months."

Sirius gaped at her. She chuckled at his fearful look and waved her wand at him, muttering an incantation under her breath. "You're back to normal, or as normal as you ever are." She tossed him her pocket mirror.

"Oh, thank God," Sirius ran a hand through his stylishly long hair.

"Once again, Black," Lily shook her head. "I never knew you were so dedicated to your religion."

He snorted but refrained from comment, perhaps because he was religious, but more likely because it was so far from the truth that it was laughable to him.

Lily began to hum to herself. He didn't recognize the tune and assumed it was a muggle song. That's when he first heard them, two girls talking just around the corner. He glanced at Lily but she hadn't heard them over her singing. As they got closer he began to catch words. He listened closer when he heard his name.

"Yeah, he's with Ellyse Mellow now," he knew that voice.

"Really, that brainless airhead?" Another voice he recognized.

"I like Ellyse," the first girl protested. Sirius was sure she was in Gryffindor but he couldn't come up with a name. "She's a bit scatterbrained but she's nice."

"Are you kidding Claudia?" _Of course, Claudia Garland,_ Sirius realized. "She gets with practically every guy in the school for a week and then moves on to fresh kill. He could do better then her. She's scarcely better then Michelle Heron." She named the Ravenclaw fifth year with the reputation for being _easy_. "She must have seduced him somehow." Sirius's blood boiled in his veins. He pulled out his wand as they turned the corner but Lily beat him to it.

_How much did she hear?_ Sirius couldn't help but wonder as she sent a truly powerful bat bogey hex at the girl who had been insulting Ellyse. His slightly darker curse hit the wall behind where the girl had been standing.

"Margaret?" Lily stared at the girl below her. "You're awful," she stepped away from the, well, batty Ravenclaw. "And you?" she spun on Claudia her wand upraised. "You're in Ellyse's house. I don't know who you're mad at her for _seducing_," she pronounced the word like a disgusting swear, "But you owe her more respect."

"She didn't Lily," Sirius interrupted.

"What?" Lily still had her wand pointed at the speechless Claudia.

"She was defending Ellyse, somewhat," he added sourly. Claudia hadn't spoken ill of Ellyse but she certainly wasn't singing her praises either.

Lily lowered her wand.

"Miss Evans!" a flustered Professor Flitwick scurried down the hall. "What is the meaning of this? Ah, and Mr. Black," the teacher's tone was suddenly darker and less surprised. "What had occurred here?"

Sirius opened his mouth but Lily spoke first. "It was my fault Professor," she stared guiltily at her hands, "I heard Miss Pritchard, with whom I had previously been on the best of terms, saying some rather awful things about one of my dearest acquaintances. I quite lost control of my temper, Sir. I'm awfully sorry." Sirius had never seen a more gifted liar. "I swear to you I will never allow anything of the sort to happen again."

"I certainly hope not, Miss Evans," the Professor was much pleasanter now, clearly charmed by her speech. "Most disappointing."

Lily ducked her head even further and shuffled her feet. "I suppose you'll have to punish me now, but—"she hesitated. "Well, if you please, Sir, would you give me perhaps another detention on top of any other punishments rather then take points from my house. I should be most truly ashamed of myself if my peers were to suffer from my ill-judgment and quick temper as well." She lifted her chin slightly to peer hopefully at him through her eyelashes.

"Well I," Flitwick looked from one student to another, clearly surprised. "I don't think I've ever heard the like. No, Miss Evans, I will not punish your house as well. You will serve detention tonight, Scouring pots in the dungeon with the company of Mr. Black. He too sent a curse," he gestured towards the scorch mark on the wall, "Although luckily it did not hit poor Miss Pritchard."

"Thank you so very much, Professor," Lily smiled sheepishly, "I swear to you I'll be much more careful in the future."

"Yes of course, Lily," the teacher responded kindly. "You and Mr. Black will report to my office at seven this evening." He began to walk away. "Oh and Lily, excellent work on that exam today, full marks."

Lily turned to Claudia. "I'm so sorry Claudia," she gave the girl a hug. "I didn't mean to jump to conclusions but I thought so well of Margaret and well." She trailed off as she gazed at the wing covered and furious looking girl.

"Not to worry, Lily," Claudia returned the hug. "I don't blame you." She turned to the vexed Margaret. "You can get yourself to the hospital, can't you?" she asked. Margaret stormed off, irate at Lily weaseling her way out of a worse punishment. Claudia chuckled and waved as she headed back the direction she had been headed.

Sirius pulled back a tapestry to reveal a secret passageway to Lily. He waited for her to go first. "You are perhaps the most talented liar I have ever had the pleasure of meeting," he informed her. "That was truly inspiring."

Lily laughed at him. "Why do you think I'm never in trouble?" she asked him.

Sirius stood in an awed silence for a moment. "You're my new god," he informed her.

Lily laughed again. "So much for the whole religious deal."

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Lily was right on time for detention; in fact she was early. She stood in the hall outside the dungeon and paced back and forth. She glanced at her watch; one minute till detention began and Sirius was nowhere in sight.

"I'll kill him if he doesn't show," she muttered as she resumed her pacing.

"Who me?" Sirius was leaning against the wall.

Lily jumped at his voice. "Where'd you come from? You weren't there a second ago."

"Benefit of being a Marauder," he smirked. "You get everywhere twice as fast as everyone else." He tapped his wand on a slimy looking stone a foot from the floor. An illusion of stones disappeared to reveal a dark secret passage.

"Oh." Lily stared into the darkness for a moment. "Come on we'll be late." She turned to open the dungeon door.

"I thought girls liked to be fashionably late," Sirius grumbled.

"Not this girl," Lily walked through first, leading the way.

"Well hello there studentsies," a slimy voice came from the darkness. Filch stepped forward. "I hear you've been cursing other studentsies. Tsk, tsk, tsk," he shook a finger at them. "That won't do."

Lily and Sirius exchanged a look.

"Here's your pots," the caretaker pointed to a stack of stinking slime covered cauldrons. "Have fun." He walked away laughing like a maniac.

Lily and Sirius stared at the cauldrons for a moment. Lily sighed, "We may as well get started." She grabbed a scrub brush and a bottle of soap. "Aren't you going to help?" Sirius was staring at her like she was mad.

"Evans, did you hear him?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Lily was getting annoyed.

"He never said no magic," Sirius laughed, "Unless you want to scrub those."

"No!" Lily tossed the brush back into a corner and whipped out her wand. "Scourgify." The throat clogging odor, purplish fumes and shiny slime disappeared. "That's a relief," She waved her wand again and the pots rearranged themselves orderly. Lily sighed. "Now what do we do for the next hour?"

"Nothing," Sirius laughed, "That's the point."

Lily was surprised how fast the time passed. She and Sirius just sat on the floor talking. He was actually pretty funny once she got past the cocky attitude. She enjoyed listening to his stories even if most of them did include James.

"And then he made up a story on the spot about needing to send a letter home to explain to the house elves how to take care of his sick pet giraffe Wally. The crazy old man believed him and told us to just hurry back to bed when we were done," Sirius laughed at James's story telling abilities. Lily laughed uncertainly. It certainly was funny but she didn't quite approve of wandering around the school with no reason.

"You know James is a good guy, Evans," Sirius said after a pause. "He's my best mate and I can tell you honestly that he isn't lying when he says he likes you."

Lily looked away. She opened her mouth to answer him but then the door slammed as Filch entered the dungeon.

"Done already?" the man looked thoroughly depressed.

"Yup," Lily jumped to her feet. "I guess that means we can leave," she hinted.

"Yes," Filch sighed dejectedly and stepped to the side. Lily rushed out the door and into the corridor before Sirius could continue the topic. When she reached the Common Room she didn't pause to look around. She bolted up the stairs to her dorm and hid.

A/N: Lily being foolish and Sirius being awesome (as usual). This story's almost over but I'm not sure how long it'll take me to start the sequel. I want to wrap up and start a few other things first. Review please!


	23. 20 Explosion

Author's Note:

Wow, I'm really sorry I took so long. I went to camp for a week, then on a vacation, then I had summer reading to do, then school started, and dive team, and dance... Yeah, I've been busy.

Ch. 21 Explosion

Lily woke early on a Saturday morning in April because of a stripe of sunlight slipping through a crack in her curtains. Rather than grumbling a bit, rolling over and going back to sleep Lily chose instead to get up, dress quickly and silently exit the dorm. A glance at her watch told her it was only 7:30 and on a Saturday, that meant she'd be one of about three people at breakfast.

After a quick plate of eggs, fritters and bacon, Lily hurried out into the crisp morning air towards the Quiddich pitch. She remembered the night before with a smile. Ellyse was trying to teach her how to play Quiddich. She hoped Lily would join the team as a chaser the next year but Lily was happy just knowing she _could_ fly.

As she walked Lily rubbed her eyes a few times and stretched her arms languorously. She was still sleepy but refreshed and eager to be on a broom again.

The soaring feeling was just how Lily remembered it from the night before, the wind rushing through her hair and lashing at her clothes. Knowing she had hours to wile away, Lily took a long ride about the grounds. She dashed above the tips of the trees in the Forbidden Forest and skimmed her fingers along the surface of the lake. She peered into the greenhouses from above, staring about to see the interesting and dangerous plants studied only by older students and veered sharply to avoid the smoke coming from Hagrid, the gamekeeper's cabin.

With a very satisfied feeling, Lily chose to fly back to the pitch, ready to practice actual Quiddich. She brought out the Quaffle—a benefit of befriending teachers, although Ellyse often teased her for it, they'll grant a few favors—and practiced throwing it through the golden hoops at the end of the pitch then bewitching it to come back.

Lily was just considering trying to enchant the Quaffle to fly at her randomly so she could try keeping but then she spied students exiting the school, undoubtedly to enjoy the beautiful weather. She was in a mood to keep her self company for the day so she touched down and returned the Quaffle. She ambled slowly back towards the castle, carefree and light hearted.

"…Lily…"

Lily snapped to attention at the sound of her name. She looked over her shoulder but didn't see anyone who could have been calling her. Another long, sweeping glance about the grounds confirmed a dread that had been building in her gut. James.

Just a few yards away the Marauders were walking towards Hagrid's hut, deep in conversation, too deep, in fact, to notice her. Every other time she'd seen them like that a reckless and foolish prank had followed. A split second was all that was needed to convince her that eaves's dropping was far from a bad thing to do.

Lily wandered inconspicuously towards them, her ears perked for prank information, mainly just the location so that she could avoid it. Her eyes widened at her name. She crept closer, intending to discover how she was involved in this newest plot. Unfortunately, at that moment more students began to head outside creating far more background noise then she would have hoped for.

"Hey Potter." She jumped almost as high as Peter when a voice from behind the boys called out.

Spinning on the spot, James's eyes narrowed as he focused on the greasy haired boy some ten feet behind him. Severus Snape glared back at him with as much venom. Lily could have sworn she saw his eyes flick towards her briefly as the bush she was hiding behind hid her from the Marauders but not from him however James didn't seem to notice so she figured she'd imagined it.

"_Snivellus_," Sirius sneered crossing his arms next to James. Lily wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Been snogging your mudblood lately, Potter?" Snape asked James with a slight grin and a malicious taint to his otherwise politely interested voice.

"_Expelliarmus_," Sirius said, almost bored. James raised his wand.

"_EXPELLIARMUS_!"

All five boys looked around stupidly for a moment to see where the spell had come from. A few students including Ellyse and Jordan walked towards the group to see what the commotion was about. Lily stepped out from behind the bush shaking with anger. "What were you going to do?" she asked James, her jaw clenched to keep her from screaming.

"Lily, I—uh, I," James struggled to find an answer she might accept. "He called you a—_a you know what_!"

The jaw unclenched. "I DON'T CARE WHAT HE CALLED ME! YOU WERE GOING TO JINX HIM! RIGHT AFTER BLACK DISARMED HIM YOU WERE GOING TO HURT HIM, AN UNARMED FELLOW _STUDENT_!" she shrieked. "AND YOU'D JUST DISARM HIM AND MAKE HIM EASY PREY FOR YOUR _FRIEND_! I THOUGHT YOU'D DO BETTER THEN THAT!"

"He instigated—"

"AND _YOU_," Lily spun to face Remus. "SUCH A GOOD STUDENT, SUCH A GOOD PERSON? YEAH, RIGHT! YOU COULD JUST STAND THERE AND WATCH THIS HAPPEN LIKE IT'S NOTHING? YOU'RE AS BAD AS THE TWO OF THEM!" Now Lily looked towards Peter. "AND DON'T THINK I DIDN'T NOTICE YOUR HUNGRY EXPRESSION. NOT ONLY DO YOU LET THEM DO THIS, BUT YOU ENJOY WATCHING THEM TORMENT OTHER PEOPLE! YOU'RE BLOODY PATHETIC!"

"Lily, calm down," Ellyse urged, rushing to the boys' defense.

"You know you're overreacting," Jordan continued more quietly.

Lily gave them both a glare that could freeze flames and stormed away. The whole group stared after her but no one considered following. All their expressions were frozen in shock and various forms of fear. All save one. All save the one face that was trying, and failing, to hide a faint smirk.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Lily didn't pay attention to direction as she stomped through the castle passageways, tunnels, and staircases.

_Why does he have to be such a bloody arse?_ She thought with a sigh of frustration. _And Sirius too, I was considering trying to be nice to and even maybe friends with the both of them but then they pull something like this. I just hate him when he does this! I want to forgive him and not have to hate him but I can't stand when he harasses someone for no reason._

A tiny voice in her head reminded Lily that he did have a reason. Snape had called her a mudblood again.

Fine, for no **good **reason." She amended. Regardless, he's given me yet another reason to dislike him.

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"Want to go play Quiddich, Lily?" Ellyse asked a few weeks later as they sat in the Common Room."

"I'm studying."

"But you've been studying for hours, weeks actually," Ellyse complained. "It's so nice out and we need to stretch our legs."

"Stretch our legs flying a broom?" Lily asked cynically. She turned a page in her book.

"Stretch our legs on the walk down to the pitch."

"Walk around the Common Room."

"I don't want to."

"Then walk down to the pitch by yourself."

Ellyse sighed and walked to the window where Jordan was seated, writing in her diary. "Lily's having a bad day again," she commented vaguely, staring out towards the pitch outside. "Hasn't sopped studying for end of year exams since that fight near Hagrid's"

Jordan laid down her pen and glanced at Lily from under her eyelashes. "Something happened that she didn't tell us, she made some sort of decision regarding those boys, starting to trust them, but being guys, they did something stupid and now she feels foolish for ever thinking they were okay." Jordan's eyes narrowed as she rotated in her seat, fixing Lily with a more intense gaze. "She was starting to forgive them for whatever made her hate them to start with and now she feels like they were being arses just to make her feel foolish."

"Why would she think that though?" Ellyse was looking at Jordan instead of Lily, Jordan noticed, hanging on her every word.

"I can't say," Jordan answered, a cruel plan developing in her mind. "Her emotions are pretty mixed up and complicated at this point though. She doesn't know who she can trust."

"And if she's so mad at them then why's she being mean to us too?" Ellyse said exactly what Jordan had wanted her to say.

"Because we defended them," she answered evenly. "We're still friends with them even though she clearly hates them so much."

"Do you think she'll talk to us again if we start avoiding them too?" Ellyse asked, coming to the point Jordan had been dancing around.

"That's a really good point, Ellyse," Jordan finally looked to her companion instead of across the room at Lily. "You know that just might work."

"But," Ellyse's lip quivered a bit and Jordan felt the first tinge of remorse. "That means I'll have to break up with Sirius."

Jordan searched her friend's eyes, deciding if she was willing to hurt her so badly for a guy. "I know. It's hard. But who matters more, Lily or a guy?" _Who matters more, Ellyse or a guy?_ A voice echoed in the back of Jordan's mind.

A kind of loving determination changed Ellyse's eyes to blocks of steel. "Lily," she answered through gritted teeth. Without another word she stood and exited the Common Room. Jordan was disgusted with the sweep of joy and hope she felt in her gut. Disgusted with her conniving misuse of a good friend. She stood with half a mind to stop Ellyse but instead walked to the window and sat next to Lily, not saying a word.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The next morning Lily woke with an angry feeling in the gut of her stomach that she couldn't explain. It took a moment for her to recall her hatred of James and Sirius, which only made her even angrier.

She grumbled as she stepped out of bed on to the cold wooden floors, tip-toeing to the bathroom. After a long shower to relax her muscles, Lily emerged to find her friends had already left for breakfast. She felt a twinge of regret when she remembered how they once would have snuck into the bathroom and banged on the walls to startle her when she took to long in the shower. Now they preferred to avoid the fight that would surely ensure.

Lily thought long and hard about her crabbiness as she walked to breakfast, thinking about how heartless she had acted as of late. When she sat down at the table though she noticed how oddly Ellyse was acting.

Ellyse kept shooting worried glances down the table to where a dejected looking Sirius was picking at his food heartlessly. Both of them regularly ate twice as much as the entire table combined but suddenly they seemed not to care about what was on their plates. Lily shot a look at Jordan but she just shrugged.

"Ellyse, what's up?" Lily asked, her tone kind for the first time in ages it felt like.

"I broke up with Sirius," Ellyse's voice was weak and shaky.

"Why?" Lily instantly needed to hear and dreaded hearing her answer.

Ellyse gave Jordan a look. "Because you're right. They're jerks."

"Oh." Lily felt guilty; Ellyse felt miserable, and Jordan felt sick.

A/N: Finally finished. Thank god, I've been working on ths chapter for ages and it just wouldn't come out the way I wanted it to. I'm still not very happy but I gave up. Sorry if there were a lot of type-os. I really just wanted to get it posted.


	24. 21 ill never give up

Author's Note:

Ta-da! This is the last chapter, exciting right? A little bittersweet, this was my first ever fan fiction, I'm getting a little teary eyed (sniffle). Anywho, I'll be starting a sequel covering years 4 through 6, but not for a while. I have two other fics I'm in the middle of right now—as well as a third I haven't posted yet—and another story I'm writing that's not fan fiction, just something I came up with. Plus I have TONS of schoolwork. Sorry for all the excuses but I want you to know I WILL continue this story in a sequel so keep your eyes peeled.

Ch. 22

"Times up, quills down please," Professor Binns whipped out his wand and summoned all the papers. "Class dismissed," wheezed the Professor from somewhere under all the scrolls.

Lily smiled in relief. She'd just had time to finish off her last essay about dragon breeding nicely. "Oh my goodness, that was just horrid," Ellyse complained. "Like I care when dragon breeding was outlawed! Talk about useless information. It's outlawed now, why do we have to know when it was outlawed? What kind of loser would even know that?"

"1709 hun," Lily cut in, "Warlock's Convention of 1709." Jordan chuckled quietly.

A pause. "Oh."

"Er—Lily?" Michael Doney followed them into the halls. "A word?"

Lily glanced at Ellyse. "Save me a seat at lunch?"

"Sure." Ellyse hesitated, burning with curiosity but she didn't have any reason to stay any longer and turned away, glancing over her shoulder repeatedly as she walked.

"So—er—what's up?" she asked.

"I made a mistake," Michael had his hands in his pockets and was shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"It happens to the best of us." Lily's mind instantly shot to the episode on the lawn just a few weeks earlier.

"Lily, I know you would never have cheated on me," he shook his head and glanced up at her uncertainly. "I was so stupid and angry and well, I've missed you."

"What are you saying?" Lily crossed her arms, refusing to make it easy for him.

"Will you go out with me?" Michael's eyes were so hopeful that Lily's 'no' was stillborn in her throat.

"I—uh—I——er—I mean, I guess…so," Lily stuttered. "Uh, yeah?" She hadn't intended it as a question.

Relief swept over Michael's face and he grinned at her. "Thanks," he said. "Really, just thanks." Then with another heartfelt wave he turned and jogged down the corridor.

Lily stood for a moment, pondering for a moment, smiling a bit to herself, recalling the hope and then the joy on his face. It felt good to see someone look at you like that. It felt good to be needed.

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Before they knew it exams were over. Trunks were packed, Lorenzo was dragged forth from the boy's toilets, and James finally coaxed Flamel into his cage.

And once again, Lily was the last to leave the girl's dormitory, and once again, James Potter was sitting in the Common Room waiting for her, his bags already packed into the train with Sirius, Remus and Peter.

Lily stopped short as she reached the last step. Lorenzo hissed in his wicker basket at the lurching halt. With a cool and distant look Lily bent to lift her trunk and headed towards the portrait whole with her head held high, childishly pretending he wasn't there.

Much to her displeasure, Lily's trunk wheels got caught in the portrait whole and she was delayed trying to free them while holding a now irate Lorenzo steady.

"Here," James lifted up the back of the trunk and gently placed it on the ground.

Lily bit her tongue for a long period of time, trying to come up with some excuse she could use to yell at him. Not able to come up with one she grumbled a surly thank you and stormed away. James followed walking at her side first when she walked quickly and still when she slowed down to a snail's pace as though he was naturally changing speed in sync with Lily.

"Do you have a problem?" Lily finally demanded, stopping short in the middle of the deserted hall.

"Not at all." James looked at her curiously, his eyebrows arched slightly over his glasses. "I merely wondered why you seemed to have such difficulty in saying thank you to a kind gesture."

Lily glowered at him and stormed away. James followed.

Ten seconds later. "Will you stop it?"

"No. I'm waiting for an answer."

"Well you're not going to get one."

"Well you're not going to get any space."

Lily stopped again, her jaw clenched. "Thank you," she forced out. She started walking again. James followed.

"Why are you still following me?"

"Cause you still haven't answered my question."

"I'm mad at you."

"Thank you Captain Obvious."

Lily stopped again, for some reason he didn't seem to need her to like him anymore. He was a different James then she was used to, he didn't _need_ her to like him like he used to. It scared her; she didn't know how to act anymore.

"So you won't say thank you because you're mad at me?" James inquired, raising his eyebrows curiously again. She was starting to hate that; it made her feel like she was a stupid two year old.

Lily narrowed her eyes and nodded sharply.

"Well that's rude."

Lily glared again, turned with a swish of red gold hair and headed down the steps towards the train.

James stomped after her, giving up on the careless scheme. "Lily, look I'm sorry. I thought if I acted like I didn't care you'd talk to me again." Lily kept walking. "Lily please, I'm sorry. Lily…

"Can you just let me talk?" he continued. "Just listen to me for two minutes." He grabbed her arm gently. "Lily!"

She ripped her arm from his grasp and stepped back, chest heaving. "Talk."

"Thank you." He stopped, not sure what he wanted to say considering he never thought she'd actually let him. "I've been a jerk. You know it; I know it. I've been very rude, I'm sorry." He stopped but she didn't say anything. "Now I've liked you since the first day I ever saw you, before I even knew your name." Lily wondered when that was considering her name had been announced aloud at sorting back in first year. "I know that I've liked you more every day since then. So no matter how long you refuse to talk to me, no matter how many times you scream at me, no matter how much you seem to hate me, I'll always be here pestering, begging, and pleading for you to do a double take.

"I'm not going to give up. You're a smart girl; I thought you'd have figured that out by now. Maybe you have a brain block to the idea or something I don't know, but I do know that I won't be giving up so you might as well give me a chance. Now or later I'll get you Evans, take your pick. I'm not going to give you up."

"You'll _get_ me?" Lily stepped forward breathing heavy and fuming. "You'll _GET_ me? What am I to you Potter? Some trophy just to say you can get anyone to like you? Am I just a challenge to you? Just a _bloody_ CHALLENGE!"

Lily got control of her voice and in a whisper quavering with anger she added. "_Never_ come near me again."

The train ride home was quick and uneventful. Lily sat surrounded by friends but unwilling to partake in any of the conversations or games of exploding snap because of her temper.

She regretted being so grumpy when she stepped onto the platform and saw a surly Petunia next to her grinning father and mother. The car ride home was long and boring, lots of questions about school which Lily was sure her parents didn't understand a word of her answers as she prattled on about transfiguration and what an old toad her professor was to fill the time.

When she got home she went straight to her room, untouched since Easter break. She sat on the bed with a sigh and glowered at the dust clouds that puffed up around her. "James _Bloody_ Potter," she muttered to herself. "You _ruined_ my summer before it even started."

A/N: Not boding too well for James in the sequel now is it? I don't know, could be tricky. I haven't written the outline yet so literally anything could happen. Well, I'll miss you guys, see you at the sequel.

Merry Christmas!


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